Short stories set after the events of Zerg Swarm Empress
by NOOBZILLA
Summary: A collection of short stories set after the events of Zerg Swarm Empress but before the Swarm Empress Returns Arc of the sequel story Chronicles of the Fractal-verse.
1. Chapter 1

Starcraft is the property of Blizzard.

Halo is the property of Microsoft.

* * *

Ok this chapter will begin with a little note clarifying somethings, and also if you haven't read the first part of my story please go do that and then come back here, Otherwise you will be missing a big part of the story and will be a little confused about some things.

[Ellen and Psionic powers]

1\. My idea for Ellen is more a dark hero who cares for others but isn't cliche and all goody goody in helping everyone but is a combination of pessimist, optimist and realist and a little sadistic but she's completely aware of that part of her selfe only using it against others who she views as worthy of seeing it. That part of her hasn't seen much screen time... yet.

2\. Valkyrur like Ellen and Aliasse can make their psionic energy into a solid form with mass [Aura] and shape it into anything they can imagine. The Protoss can also do this to a _limited extent_ like with [plasma shields] or [Hallucinations] although that one is very weak.

3\. In my story Psionic and Psychic powers are different, similar but different, the details will be explained much later in the story... maybe sooner?.

4\. Ellen is not infested yet, however it will happen later in the story. Ellen simply received the Zerg ability to metabolize creep and Hydrogen which is the second evolution she has gone through, her devouring Azrumath's essence was the third and their will be others. And yes more people will be infested haven't got the details hammered out yet.

5\. Ellen's red aura and Valkyrur body allows her to absorb and evolve by devouring and copying psionic energy and powers. This is the psionic based counterpart to how the Zerg devour and evolve from biological essence.

6\. I plan on making the psionic abilities of the Protoss a little stronger then in the games and also the Tal'darim's psionic powers were a little weak because of their separation from the Immaterium its beings.

[Story]

1\. The Halo and Starcraft timelines will be a little different then in cannon because of the combined universe's and Ellen's and Aliasse's actions. Also for those of you who have read the Halo books Contact Harvest. The fall of Reach, The flood and the first few chapters of of First strike, they are cannon with my story however you should consider their story's are altered a bit or a lot in my universe and Ghosts of Onyx as never happened because of the presence of the Zerg causing changes to how the UNSC operates and develops the Spartan programs.

2\. The events of Brood war will also be a little different because the UED does not exist, however the UNSC and Earth will still send a expedition and I will be doing a few things differently by adding a new faction to the war, Gerard Duhalle and Alexei Stukov will be in my story only their UNSC officer's.

[RWBY]

1\. To unknown Guest, For some reason your review didn't show up on the fanfiction site for a week but I did get it on my E mail... weird huh?. Anyway to answer your question I will be infesting people hear and there I got stuff planned and I already have a idea on saving Summer Rose, I'll also be changing some of the story, mostly after season 3 and the fall of Beacon. I haven't watched any of the seasons after that as I plan on binge watching the whole RWBY seires when I finish the broodwar part of my story.

Also consider Halo as the primary timeline and starcraft timeline as secondary.

[Dimensions]

The real world, our world, Halo, Starcraft, RWBY and a little of warhammer 40k makes up this universe all of it formed by that higher dimensional being who will mostly be in the back round watching at least up to a point.

Also the Fractal-verse is my own idea of a level of reality beyond a multiverse. Think every subatomic atom is a multiverse of different possible universes from any work of fiction TV, movies, games, books then fill a universe with them and then mix and match them together into different combinations infinitely and that's a basic idea of the Fractal-verse.

Beings like the higher dimensional one at the end of the end chapter of Arch 1 do the mixing and matching as thats their purpose. So their the same as us writing fanfiction, in that regard. ONLY REAL!.

* * *

"Talking"

 **"Telepathy"**

~Transmision, Radio or TV~

* * *

 **[Chapter 1]**

 **[Return of the Swarm part 1]**

 **Planet Reach**

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **May, 1st,** **2213**

After the first manned expedition to Mars discovered the Forerunner warpgate in 2020 Aliasse revealed that the Swarm empress had informed her of its existence and that the world it connected to was a gift. After five years of sending probes it was confirmed that the planet could be terraformed and made livable for humans. After that there was a massive push from the scientific community to terraform the planet and after Earths united governments talked over the costs and technology required for the venture the whole of humanity put its collective resource's into the massive project. Luckily the planet was in the green zone of the sun with a moon and had large bodys of water like oceans that made the planet very much like Earth only it didn't have much life on it other then a few species of flora, fauna and microbes but nothing like the diversity of life on Earth. Scientist sent to the planet looked at the fossil records of the soil discovering evidence that the planet had been hit by a mass extinction event just a hundred thousand years before and was only just recovering from the massive amounts of dust that had filled the atmosphere. Earth itself had been hit by similar mass extinction events and life took a million or more of years to fully recover from each event.

Humanity saw the chance to spread to other worlds and the newly formed UEG(United Earth Government) spent the next ten years just building up space infer-structure on and in orbit of Earth the moon and Mars to support all the ships that would transport resources and technology needed for the colonist while scientists developed inoculations for the existing flora and fauna on Earth and the new planet so their immune systems could adapt to each others microbes as humanity was becoming more aware of its impact on other lifeforms and did not want a repeat of when Europeans came to north America and killed untold numbers of natives just from their diseases alone. Over the course of the next hundred years as humans spread throughout the Sol-system building up larger colonies on Earths moon Luna, Mars and the cave network found under the surface of Titan as well as other planets, moons and asteroid's the planet on the other side of the warpgate way was slowly made more like Earth as new forests of genetically modified plants spread across its surface producing oxygen, it was finally declared habitable for human life. Hundreds of colony ships departed from Earth to Mars traveling through the warp gateway to the new world landing on its surface and building up a new city named Esztergom that would later become the capital of the planet. The planet was then named by the first settlers ' _Reach'_ because it was the first world outside of the solar system that humanity had reached and would be the gateway to the rest of the galaxy.

* * *

Aliasse weakly blinked her eyes open as the incessant beeping roused her from sleep.

Even after two hundred years the simple alarm clock is still as annoying as ever. Aliasse gave a tired sigh as she reached over and turned the clock off.

"Good morning Lady Aliasse," a disembodied women's voice said.

Aliasse,s body moved on instinct remembering all the other times the AI had awoken her some times with loud music or even by lowering the beds temperature and comfort settings. "Good morning Calypso," Aliasse replied stretching her arms getting out of bed.

Normally citizen's aren't allowed the use of a smart A.I. in their daily activities let alone the AI hooked up to every computer system in Reach's capital city, Aliasse however is not just any citizen as she holds the rank and duty of Observer, a social rank and position first suggested by Ellen before she and her swarm left the Sol-system. A Observer is someone who looks at Humanity's use of technology, activities with it and how they affect the environment and the everyday life,s of the population as a whole among other factors and gives advice or warnings to leaders of both the governments and corporations to ensure a stable and safe society and to make sure that technology and the environment is not abused. Now a-days AI's help Observers in their duty's as the pairing of a AI and a human is the normal set up of Observers as one has vast mental processing abilities and the other gives a human perspective and opinion on the matters discussed.

"I've prepared the newest date files for you " the AI said.

"Thank you, I'll get to them in a bit" Aliasse replied as she walked to the middle of her bedroom and gave some yoga stretches.

"Weather reports say it's going to be a warm day in the morning but a little hot in the evening."

Aliasse gave a sigh as she walked to the bathroom removing her nightgown."It's been a while since we got any rain" She said more as a question.

After a short pause the AI answered." Forecasts say it will rain in two weeks."

"That's good to hear," Aliasse replied as she entered the shower, after shutting the door the preset controls of the shower poured warm water from the faucet head soon after the glass walls of the shower were fogging up from the steam.

"How are the projections for the next century," Aliasse yelled over the noise of rushing water.

"They look good by your standards. However I think the development of faster then light travel technology will be delayed by budget cuts to such high energy and physics research. If this continues the development of FTL tech will be delayed by a hundred years."

"Calypso send a request for a appointment to meet with the president."

"Done," the AI replied.

Aliasse exited the shower drying off, she took a moment to wipe off the fogged up mirror, within she saw the reflection of a young 20 something women with red eyes and long sliver hair extending down to her waist.

Aliasse comed her long hair putting it into a single long braid then she put on a white dress with multicolored neon lines along its shoulders and down its lower sides, a example of the style and tech of the modern era. After getting herself clothed Aliasse made herself up some breakfast and started her morning work in the living room. Being an Observer meant that she had to look through a ton of reports that included information on anything from crime rates, the size of the population and city growth rates, social media, the average scores of students in all grades of school, geology and weather reports to even how much waste organic and inorganic is produced and recycled every year but that's where the smart AI Calypso comes in as she's able to look through millions of such reports and combe through vast amounts of date on any subject of interest in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take Aliasse or any of the other human Observers and distill it into a simple to understand date chart or map.

After spending a few hours doing her normal work Aliasse glanced at the clock remembering she had something pressing to discuss with the president of Reach.

Aliasse put on her shoes and headed out the door and into a large open space shaped like a roofed bowl, three story high apartment buildings ringing around a center park area, both separated by a side walkway and thick crisscrossing support columns and archways all curving around in a circle indicating that the giant building which was at least three hundred fifty feet wide was round in shape instead of being square like last century architecture.

Aliasse walked down the curving street and used the elevator to descend to a lower level parking lot where she took one of the many cars public cars. Aliasse closed the door telling the cars simple AI her destination. Slowly it backed up and drove off.

Public transportation cars like it were a common sight now a days as the era of personal cars and vehicles was mostly ended its far more efficient and less wasteful of resources to have transport vehicles that are available for everyone's use instead of everyone having their own private cars, many people still own cars, boats, and even space yachts and ships but its not as common as in the 21 century.

The self driving car exited the building onto a elevated overpass that spiraled around the lower base of the massive white building colored like the rest of the city and the roadways to reflect light away and reduce the energy cost of keeping the city cool in the summer or any hot day while also being covered in a solar energy absorbing molecular paint that can convert 42% of the suns energy into usable power like all the photovoltaic glass thats all over the city.

As the car joined many other vehicles on the elevated four lane highway Aliasse looked out at the expansive city still mareavling at the size and scale of it all.

A forest of hundreds of white skyscrapers stretched out before her, their smooth formes curving 2000 feet upwards from their rounded base to the sky, broken only by windows and gaps in between the main floors that holds a large garden like the one Aliasse lives in, all of this surrounded by a sea green trees stretching out in all directions. Some buildings arranged together and connected at the base by a wide circlier five story tall building with a park or garden in its inner area while other buildings were lined in rows of long wide structures both their sides lined with large terrace's some apartment's others gardens and hugging close to all of the buildings were elevated highways and maglev monorails that criss crossed around the city like a spider web all of it built from polycrete (polymer-concrete) and neosteel which was a mete material that's a composite of at least three different elements and was seven times stronger then steel and was the same wight.

The car continued down the elevated highway as it became straighter passing rows of more giant buildings with terraced floors offset from each other forming a double or triple spiral helix shape with each floor consisting of hydroponic or Aquaponics gardens which is a system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture systems, waste excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrifying bacteria initially into nitrites and then into nitrates that are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system which as a whole creates a far more efficient and sustainable food source for large populations or isolated habitats like space colony's or even starships.

Others buildings had other odd shapes like giant archways with terraces along their top, inner and outer sides holding apartments and gardens. Most of the buildings stood one thousand five hundred feet high while others were shorter with a large roof gardens and helipads on top. All buildings on Reach and Earth were now mostly specialised in either housing, food production, education, scientific labs or even manufacturing and storage or even generalized in all six. The manufacturing and storage on the ground or underground levels with housing, schools and food production and science labs in higher levels.

As her self driving car continued down the congested highway Aliasse looked down to the large patches of green grass and tall trees below that were overshadowed by the buildings and elevated roadway as the sun moved slowly up into the sky. Small forests and open fields and in some places small lakes filled the open areas between all of the buildings, almost all of the ground level of the city was covered in such green public parks and blue lakes with elevated over passes and monorails like the one Aliasse was on built along their edges.

After a few minutes of driving Aliasse finally caught sight of her destination a thousand two hundred feet high building that split into two towers at its middle that was constructed near the warpgate at the center of the city of Esztergom which like always was swarmed by groups of small and large aircraft going and coming from the warpgate and the surrounding spaceports in alternating groups as the gate can only be used one way or the other at any given moment otherwise there could be mid air collisions.

Minute's later Aliasse's car reached the building which served as the capital building of Reach resting only a few miles from the warpgate and space ports. The car pulled off the main road and into a cavernous underground parking lot full of hundreds of others vehicles. Aliasse walked through some security checkpoints and took a few elevators before reaching the office of the president near the top floor and was quickly ushered in by a aide. As she entered Aliasse took in the 360 degree view of the city displayed on the panoramic windows.

"Ah good morning miss Aliasse," greeted a older woman in her forties as she turned from her digital paper work displayed on her desk.

"Good morning to you president Cynthia," Aliasse replied with a smile shaking the lady presidents hand and sitting down.

The miss president gave a relieved sigh. "So what is it that brings you to me today?"president Cynthia asked.

"Its about the decreasing funds for FTL research."

"Hmm I see its probably some of the politicians back on Earth becoming complacent over the colonizing of Reach and the Epsilon Eridani system. I understand that developing a Faster then light technology is important so i'll talk with the President and security council of the UEG. Anyway... miss Aliasse will you attend Reach's anniversary celebration. I've heard you had have a been... hesitant considering the end of this year is the end of the two hundred year calm the zerg promised."

"Yes it does... I've been preparing both myself and humanity for two hundred years for this," Aliasse said with a touch of nostalgia as the lady president hummed in response.

"I understand. The whole reason my campaign to become president of Reach was a success is because the people believed I could better protect them from the Zerg attack we all know is fast approaching, perhaps at the end of the year?."

"Having served ten years in the UNSC and achieving the rank of lieutenant also helped," stated Calypso joining in the conversation. "Also madame president construction of the last group of orbital MAC cannons have been completed as of just a few minutes ago."

"Thank you Calypso," the president said as she glanced up to nothing. "If you could be so kind as to show us."

One of the windows became opaque and dark displayed a image of a long structure in orbit with two rings at its middle and rear side facing away from the planet that was visible in the bottom right of the image with three more structures like it lined up in the back round.

"So thats the new orbital defense system," Aliasse said studying the image.

"The new MAC cannon defense satellites have one main electromagnetice cannon with two docking rings both of which hold eight twin linked laser cannons, ten archer pods each holding thirty missile's and two docking bays," Calypso explained.

"That's a lot of firepower. How many are in orbit?" Aliasse asked turning to the madam president.

"Around one hundred, However Earth has double that number."

"I just hope they work... we don't know how the Zerg have changed over the past two hundred years?" Aliasse said.

"Miss Aliasse." president Cynthia said as the image faded and the window became transparent again."There was another reason for you coming today other then talking about budgets and Reaches defenses?"

Aliasse sighed."Yes... lately when i've meditated before going to bed i've been sensing other psionic presence's around Reach. At first I thought it may have been Zerg or even the swarm empress herself scouting the planet but that wasn't the case. When I went looking for them I just found normal teenagers going about their day at school."

The president's expression changed to one of interest on the subject. "So you think members of the population are developing psionic powers like you."

"Yes... however they are still very weak and probably not able to manifest their powers yet, and there aren't many of them maybe only a handful on the whole planet."

"Do you have any ideas as to how or why this is happening?"

Aliasse took a few moments to collect her memory's and thoughts."Maybe the people who are developing these powers are descendents of Riela and the other girls who were given psionic powers artificially during the war two hundred years ago."

"I see that could explain things."President Cynthia mumbled crossing her arms. "I've read the documents concerning the experiment's of the Jaeger Pharmaceutical company from back then, but I never thought the descendents of those girls would develop their own powers."

"Perhaps it simply took many generations for such people to develop these abilities." Calypso added putting her two cents into the conversation.

"Maybe... miss Aliasse if you could help us on this matter it would be greatly appreciated."

"Of course madam president, I first suggest taking blood samples of the people I found and trying to find the genes responsible for these powers and also try to teach those people how to properly use their powers if they are even strong enough to create psionic effects. If the number of people that can use such abilities increases it could cause... problems, and that's not even taking discrimination into consideration."

The madam president listened to every word Aliasse said already going through the worst case scenarios in her head. "If word of people with supernatural powers became public it would cause a panic or worse... we need to handle this carefully, these psionically gifted people could be a great asset in the not just the war with the Zerg but could be the next evolution of the human race."

The thought peaked Aliasse's interests and she started thinking of maybe forming a school for such people.

* * *

 **Planet Reach**

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **June, 12th,** **2213**

Aliasse worked with Calypso for a month to iron out the details of building an academy and the protocols for finding and training people with any degree of psionic power as well as simulating the social, economic and cultural changes that will surely follow the public becoming aware of humans with such powers. The work went slowly but that was mainly because there were only a hand full of people with a small hint of psionic power and they have yet to awaken to their own powers.

However their awakening was sooner then anyone could predict.

Along the eastern coastline of Reach's main continent set in between the shadow of a small mountain range and the ocean rested the small coastal city of Aldiss home to 21,116 people. A few hundred meters off the coast floated a few dozen white domed agriculture platformes the size of a five story building each with terraces along the domes for growing food and the under belly of the structure was lined with three concentric rings each of dozens of jellyfish like ribbons that generate electric power from the tidal forces and ocean currents.

"See ya later mom!" a young girl said as she left home for school.

The weather was calm and sunny as she made her way to the parking lot just a few blocks from her family's apartment building. After reaching a car she sighted a boy walking up to her, one of her neighbors a classmate and her friend, she waved to him and they both hopped into one of the public transport cars. The auto driver handled the driving as neither of them had their driving licenses yet. The auto driving car drove through the town along the coastline to Brandson High school. The school rested at the edge of Aldiss on a smalla mile long and half a mile wide peninsula.

After reaching their school the car drove off and the two high schoolers entered the school grounds.

"Ah I hate these random tests," the girl cried as they walked through the main courtyard dotted with other students arriving.

"Heh heh like your the only one, I barley passed the last one, at least your good at math," the boy replied as they went through the front doors followed by the other student's."You want to catch that new movie at the theater tomorrow?" he asked.

The girl hummed to herself thinking it over. "I don't think so I have to do some family stuff and it could get ugly if dad finds out I ditched his little family camping trip."

"Your whole family still go's on that yearly camping trip every year?"

"Yes, every year," she answered with a sigh.

"Well I guess we can go after you get back," the boy suggested as they turned into their classroom.

The rest of the day was the normal everyday classes followed by club activities, gardening in the schools hydroponics garden which produces some of the food the students eat. Then there's painting class, and a little music class. A little later the girl and her classmates were in the middle of their gym class doing a variety of exercises working up a sweet, and after that they had a game of dodgeball with the class students being split into two teams.

The game was going well... for the other team as another one of their teammates was smacked by the rubber ball and was knocked out of the game.

"Ahh i'm not gonna be on the losing team again," the girl said to herself as her so called friend on the opposing team grinned at her being a show off and spinning the ball on his finger.

The boy passed the ball to one of his team mates and he then passed it to another team member trying to keep the opposing team off guard. As the girl watched the ball get passed around she remembered how in previous games she flinched and let the ball hit her, but not this time, this time she was focused and determined to win.

Suddenly her friend grabbed the ball out of thin air and throw it at her, reflexively she held up her hands keeping her eyes on the ball as it flew at her but suddenly the ball stopped and floated mere inches from her hands as it spun like crazy.

"Wat the hell?!" she thought as she moved her hands to grip the ball, Instentley the ball flew in the opposite direction and hit her friend right in the stomach dropping him like a rock as the air was forced out of his lungs and he lay there gasping for breath.

"Ah sorry!" was the only words she could get out before she felt the glaring eyes of everyone on her.

As this went on a small drone no bigger then a fly watched from one of the windows.

 **Meanwhile in Reaches capital city** **Esztergom** **.**

 **In a resturant**

Aliasse smiled watching her private laptop as she had finally observed one of the people she had sensed before display some kind of ability even though it looked quit painful for that boy it was still a step forward.

"Calypso bring up the files of all of that girls past relatives going back to the early twenty first century and cross referencing it with any of the women and teenagers who were apart of the Valkyria project," Aliasse asked as she took a sip of warm tea glancing out the window of the building as the city moved in the window giving a slow 360 degree clockwise view of the city.

The high tech apartment and restaurant building was another show of modern engineering built very differently as every floor floated on and were connected to each other by electromagnetic fields generated by circular rows of magnetic ball barrings on each floors roof and bottom allowing all the levels to rotate slowly and independently which provided some of the greatest views of the city, which was one reason the building was a high priced apartment complex with two restaurant's one on the top floor and another on the middle floor.

Aliasse looked back to her laptop the screen split into six seaprete screens, showing different people going about their daily lives.

"Calypso have the principal of that girls school hold her in his office, until I arrive."

"Understood, and i've already called a orbital taxi," the A.I.s voice replied from the lab tops speaker.

Just over a full 14 minutes later Aliasse,s orbital taxi reentered the atmosphere, the pilot flicked a switch and the craft switched to it's vertical landing mode touching down in the schools parking lot drawing the attention of any students whose classroom faced that way.

"Here we ar ma'am," the pilot said as he unlocked the doors of the craft which was shaped oddly similar to a UNSC pelican however it was just half the size and was much wider in from like a large wing with a split tail.

"Thank you," Aliasse replied as she paid the man and exited the craft.

Aliasse then walked to the schools principal's office were she came face to face with the young girl she saw in the video.

"Can I help you," the principal barked a little frustrated by the stranger who just barged into his office.

"Oh i'm sorry but Im the observer of Reach," Aliasse said as she walked over to the mans desk and pulled out a ID badge from her pocket.

For a few moments the Principal took a good look at the ID badge and read the name on it before changing his mood to be more accommodating.

"Oh miss Aliasse i'm sorry for being so rude, may I ask what the Observer of Reach is doing in my humble school."

"Well actually i'm here for her," Aliasse said as she glanced at the young girl sitting along the wall."Tell me young miss what is your name." Calypso had already told Aliasse the girls name but this was a necessary greeting.

The young girl gulped thinking that she was in trouble after what happened in the gym but she was a little transfixed by the woman standing before her, the silver hair and red eyes were very distinct and reminded the girl of her history teachers who talked about Earth and its old nations one of which had a people whos hair color ranged from jet black to differing hues of blue to sliver.

"Umm, im Kaelea Oralie." the girl replied timidly introducing herself.

"Hello Kaelea i'm Aliasse, pleased to meet you," Aliasse said with a smile and turned back to the principal. "If it would be ok can I talk to Miss Kaelea in private."

The principal cleared his throat, "Um I believe it would be ok, would you like to use my office or-."

"We could talk on the roof if thats ok," Aliasse suggested.

"That would fine," he said.

"Miss Kaelea please come with me, we have... things we need to talk about," Aliasse said in a calm tone.

Minutes later both girls were standing on the room watching the many boats pass along the coast going to and from the nearby ports that surrounded the school.

"The view is beautiful... I've always like the sea... even though it can be a dangerous place sometimes just like... your power," Aliasse said catching Kaelea off guard.

"What!? ha... how do you know about that?"

Aliasse smiled and couldn't help herself. **"Because i'm the same as you ... im... special"** Aliasse projected into Kaeleas mind, It had taken Aliasse years for her to learn how to use telepathy as it was not a easily learned ability for Valkyrur as their powers are geared for other things.

Kaelea took a step back startled by the voice in her head. "Ah... wa...how?"

Aliasse held a hand up to calm the startled young girl. "It's alright allow me to explain," Aliasse said speaking nomaly. "You have what is called psionic powers and that's how you threw that ball without touching it."

Kaelea started to pace around taking a few moments to get everything straight in her head.

"Sooo I have telekinesis and... stuff like that?"

"Yes... however the degree of you power is yet unknown, you will require proper training to fully control your abilities and discover their limits," Aliasse explained.

Kaelea took in a deep breath,"Training so... you'll train me."

"Yes."

"And after that then what we fight crime like super heros or something," Kaelea sarcastically suggested still trying to wrap her mind around her new reality.

"No, well not exactly, but I do plane of forming a training camp of sorts when the others show their powers."

"Others!... there are others with abilities like this."

"Yes but there' not very many of them. If you say yes I'll give you one on one training until the others awaken and i'll explain the history of these powers."

Kaelea took a bit to think letting out a big sigh, "Ok I'm in... but what about my parents,"

"We'll keep this between us for now, however they will have to be told at some point in the future."

 **[Chapter 1 End]**


	2. Chapter 2

Starcraft is the property of Blizzard.

Halo is the property of Microsoft.

* * *

 **[Chapter 2]**

 **[Return of the Swarm part 2]**

 **Planet Reach**

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **Menachite Mountain**

 **September, 20th,** **2213**

Kevin watched as the trees passed by the window as the public transport bus followed the winding roadway up Menachite Mountain. The 16 year old thought this whole situation was more then a little unreal.

"Psychic powers really!" he mumbled to no one with a sigh as he wondered what his parents were going to do to him after they were told about the house fire.

Well if Kevin hadn't caused his own house to fry he wouldn't be in this situation but at the same time he was grateful when that silver haired women showing up as the fire fighters put his flaming house out with their anti-fire foam. She offered to help train in using his powers so incident's like this don't happen again she even said that there were others with powers like him and she even gave him bus money and the location of where she is starting a camp to train people like him.

After four hours of traveling the bus arrived at a large parking lot that extended from a seven hundred foot high vertical cliff, built out from the mountain side for tourist who come for the view of the valley below Menachite Mountain. The tourism was also the reason the bus driver is human and not self driven as tourist feel more comfortably when another human is apart of the experience although there are some that have automated transports.

Kevin paid the bus far and got off, walking over to a soda machine by the stone wall and purchased a soft drink.

"Hello."

"Ah!" Kevin exclaimed jumping at the voice that came out of nowhere nearly dropping his drink."Ah hi?" Kevin replied as he turned around locking eyes with the teenage girl.

"Oh sorry did I scare you," she said picking up Kevins soda can and handing it to him.

"Yes. Thanks for the heart attack by that way."

"Well eh... anyway your Kevin Smith right?"

"Yes are you... with Aliasse?."

"Yes, my name is Kaelea Oralie and i've been training under miss Aliasse for a few months now. We should go the others are waiting for us." Kaelea replied.

Kaelea and Kevin both walked across the parking lot as they talked.

"So Kevin what do you know about this mountain?" Kaelea asked as Kevin popped the lid on his drink and took a sip.

"Not much except what that tour bus driver said about the mountain, valley and there being a titanium mine on the other side of it."

"Yeah that mine is active and producing a lot of titanium ore but that's not where we are going."

The two of them continued across the parking lot reaching a elevator that took them up the cliff and to a tramway that lead further up the mountain. Kevin followed Kaelea into the tramway his eyes following the carbon nano cables up the mountain as they were supported by towers here and there. The trip up the mountain in the metal box car had a much better view then the bus which Kevin enjoyed as he has always had an interest in high places and flying. His plans for a career are to pass a flying license course when he turns 18 and start flying a air taxi and maybe two or three years after that he could try for a orbital flying license and fly people around Reach by exiting the atmosphere or even take people to Csodaszarvas and Turul the moons of Reach and back.

The tramcar stopped at a station near the top of the mountain and the two teenagers got out walking down a forested dirt trail lined by arm thick logs.

"So how far are we going?" Kevin asked as he finished off his soft drink and tossed it into a convenient trash box.

"It's just at the end of this trail."

After a few more minutes of hiking uphill the two of them finally reached a camp site consisting of a seven two story high log cabins with solar panels on their roofs one with a flagpole by it as the wood structures surrounded a stone fire pit.

"Welcome to psionic training camp," Kaelea said gesturing to the campsite.

"What am I supposed to be impressed or something," Kevin said shrugging.

"Well-." said Kaelea as a explosive noise grabbed their attention. "Oh great... come on."

The two followed the smoke coming from behind one of the cabins finding the remains of a exploded grill and two young boys hiding behind a large rock.

"Allan. James.? what is going on!" Kaelea yelled.

The identical twins meekly poked their heads out from around a large nearby rock.

"Both of you know what the punishment is for using your powers outside of training time right."

"Yes ma'am." the two boys said in shame as they slinked off to one of the cabins.

"Ah what am I going to do with those two," Kaelea sighed placing her hands on her hips.

"So what are you their mother," Kevin asked jokingly.

"Ah no I just... well they are just a hand-full sometimes. Their power allows them to infuse objects with Psionic energy and either control them or... make things explode."

"Yeah... I can see that," Kevin said studying the smoking and twisted metal fragments of the grill and its small blast crater.

"Ugh well come on I'll show you the boys cabin."

Walking further into the camp grounds they entered a cabin near the back of the grounds and upon entering were greeted by another boy with blond hair laying on the couch watching a video on his phones holoscreen.

"Dannie I asked you to watch Allan and James." Kaelea said visibly angry.

"Yeah I was watching while I was laying here. You now how my power works I can keep a metaphorical eye on them."

"That's not the problem, you let them play around with their powers unsupervised. They could have hurt themselves or worse."

"I did tell them to get behind that rock."

"That's not the issue, the problem is they could have been hurt. They haven't got a solid grasp of their own powers yet, and your just lucky they didn't-"

"Yeah well your not their mom or mine little miss brown-noser." Dannie yelled as he stormed out of the cabin."

"He's cheery."

"Dannie's not the easiest person to get to know. His power allows him to form psionic barriers and he can also read peoples minds, emotions and sense where they are within a one mile radius. And... yes he's probably read your mind but if you train yourself you can sense and block him."

Kevin stood their wrapping his head around that. "Ok... sooo this is the boys cabin?"

"First floor has the living room, bathroom and kitchen, the second floor has five bedrooms with bunk beds, Allan and James both bunk together so you can ether share a room with Dannie or take one of the empty rooms," Kaelea explained.

"If you have any questions now just ask."

Kevin took a few moments to think over anything. "Wheres Aliasse?"

"Oh miss Aliasse. She's not here right now but she should be back in just a few hours. She also has to finish explaining everything to our parents."

The thought of his mom and dad made Kevin regret just bailing on them after his psionic incident but he also needed to get a handle of his new found powers or risk a house fire like before... geez his dad's going to kill him for almost burning the house down and running away. "So our parents know everything, about our-."

"Psionic powers." Jennifer finished for him. "Yes and miss Aliasse does have some sway with the government so don't worry about being dissected in a lab or anything."

Kevin took the joke in stride as Kaeleas cell phone rang. "Hello?" she said talking with the person on the other end. "Ok I'll keep everyone from burning the place down until you arrive... see you then." Kaelea said hanging up.

"So what was that about?"

"That was Aliasse she said she would be late. Geeting the permission of our parents for this little camp is proving diffacult.. _."_ she replied.

"If you want I can give you a tour or you can just lounge around in the main cabin or watch the tv or something."

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"Me well... I guess i'll just try to keep the twins from blowing the camp up or I could go train a little."

"You explained what the others powers were but not yours." Kevin instantly regretted saying that as Kaelea mad a devilish smile and with a small gesture of her hand Kevin felt a invisible force wrap around him and lift him into the air rotating and spinning him slowly like a gyroscope for a few moments before setting him back down.

"Ok telekinesis then," Kevin said as he held his stomach letting it settle.

The next few hours passed quickly as Kevin took the time to get to know the layout of the campgrounds and his new cabin mates. The twins Allan and James were the youngest and were from one of Reaches many rural communities referred to as Kivas. The inhabitants of these villages mostly made a living out of farming or handicrafts and most if not all of them were self sufficient and needed little from the outside. This also made the inhabitants of these communities a tight-knit bunch.

Dannie was mostly tight lipped about everything and moody like a emo goth only without the piercings, black cloths and hair dye. He mostly kept to himself playing his cell phones games. And then there was Kaelea who seemed to be a normal teenage girl other then the fact she can move any object around with her mind and seems to change personality when she uses her psionic power. Case in point just a few hours after Kevin arrived she had one of the twins spinning around in the air while the other brother cleaned up the remains of the gill and filled in the small crater its detonation made all the while she had a sadistic grin on her face.

A few hours passed until the sun started to drifted down into the horizon becoming a orange gold light that spread across the sky. It was then that a air-taxi neared the mountain taking a passover the camp before circling around and landing at a clearing in the far edge of the campgrounds and shortly after it took off again while Kevin, Kaelea and the others boys rushed out to meet the new arrival's.

Dannie was the first to greet the new arrivals as Kevin, Kaelea and the twins caught up.

"Hello Dannie I hope that your keeping the twins out of trouble," Aliasse said as she greeted her students.

"I am but they really want to learn how to control their powers so at best I give them advice to avoid hurting others and themselves," he said feeling a little ashamed he was so lazy before.

"Hi... miss Aliasse," said Kaelea as she stopped next to Dannie taking in a few breaths from her sprint across the camp site.

Kevin watched as Aliasse greeted the others taking her time with each one and then she came to him.

"Hello Kevin are you settling in ok?"

"Um yeah... it's also nice view from up here."he replied catching sight of someone else standing behind Aliasse as the others by their expressions were also eager to meet.

"Everyone i'd like to introduce you to Fabricia Laurencia."Aliasse said moving the shy young girl out from behind her. "Say hello Fabricia."

"Hello."

* * *

 **Planet Reach**

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **Menachite Mountain**

 **September, 21, 2213**

"Good morning miss Aliasse," asked the disembodied voice of the AI.

"Ugh." yaan." Good morning Calypso," Aliasse replied slowly rowsing from her sleep.

Yesterday's events had been exhausting, first she had to leave her student's alone at the camp she had bought for a few months, (after living for two hundred years your savings account tends to pile up) so she could take the time to explain everything to their parents who were not that understanding of why their children had to go to some camp. However Aliasse position as Reach's Observer and a quick demonstration of her own psionic power were more then enough to convince them that it was in their and their children's best interest for them to learn to get a handle on their own powers. And then Aliasse had to retrieve the last of the psionically awoken children who's father just so happens to be a Captain in the UNSCDF, luckley he was a little more understanding then the civilian parents.

"Calypso have those cargo crates I ordered come yet?" Aliasse asked as she did her morning stretches before putting on a new pair of cloths.

"It arrived last night," the AI answered.

"Good so we can begin their official training today."

Aliasse finished putting on her cloths and walked down stars to the kitchen starting breakfast.

Aliasse, Kaelea and Fabricia shared the same cabine while the boys had their own and it didn't take long for the smell of cooking food to attract the other two girls.

"Morning miss Aliasse," Kaelea said rubbing her eyes as she plopped herself down at the table followed quickly by Fabricia.

"Morning Aliasse," she said.

"Good morning both of you," Aliasse replied as she gave both of them a plate of eggs, sausage, one apple and a cup of orange juice.

"Aah thanks im starving," Kaelea thanked as she dug in to her plate of food.

"Kaelea im glad you properly punished both Allan and James for yesterday but you could have been a little more graceful with Dannie." Aliasse said as she continued to cook more food.

"I try with him but he has this idea that i'm your favorite or something. And he's almost always moody... but at least he's cute," Kaelea said taking a bit of her egg.

"I'll have to talk with him about that. Anyway boys why don't you come in and have something to eat." Aliasse said as there was a rustle outside the door.

A moment later the door opened revealing Kevin, Dannie and the twins all of them looking hungary.

" _Dannie!"_ Kaelea mumbled with a full mouth as her cheeks turned a reddish hue.

"Hay uh, miss Aliasse called me... us over for breakfast," Dannia said as he and the other boys came in each taking a set at the table.

Kaelea wiped her mouth with a napkin as she felt embarrassed at her words also realising that Aliasse must have sent Dannie a telepathic call.

"Finally something to eat," Kevin said as Aliasse handed him and the other boys their plate's.

Everyone finished off their food and helped to clean up the dishes then they all gathered at the open clearing on the far side of the camp grounds that was empty except for a few black crates along its edge.

"All of you are probably ready to get started on learning to control your powers so we'll begin right away, but first I'll tell you a little about them. Your powers are generally called psionic abilities but as you can guess there are difference's between the powers of one person to another. Fabricia can you please use your powers to gain control of the machines nearby."

Everyone turned to the timid young girl, as she nervously played with her hair.

"Fabricia its alright you don't need to worry we're all friends here, just relax and do what you did before, focus on what you want to happen and where you what it to happen," said Aliasse giving her a few words of encouragement.

Nervously the young girl closed her eyes and focused reaching out with her mind to the surrounding area sensing something nearby. She focused on that object and with in a few moments had complete control of it. She then commanded it to drive towards them and the distinct sound of a electric motor slowly approached from beyond the trees and a large green four wheeled vehicle rushed into the clearing and hit its brakes making it spin nearly a full 180 degrees before fully stopping.

"Who! is that a Warthog," Dannie shouted admiring the vehicle.

"To be accurate it's a M12 force application vehicle"Aliasse said as the teenagers all marveled at the military vehicle. "I ordered them last night and no they don't not have any weapons."

"They? Kevin said."

As soon as he said it five more M12 warthogs came barreling into the clearing like the first one.

"So what are we supposed to do with them? it's not like any of us have drivers licenses," Kaelea asked.

"Their for Fabricias training and target practice for the rest of you," Aliasse explained.

"There's not much room around here for them how are we supposed to train with them?" Kevin asked.

Aliasse gave a smirk as her aura of flame formed around her greatly expanding out words enveloping everyone including the Warthogs. The aura flame then became solid expanding upwards like a tower reforming and flatining into a massive platform the size of three football fields with ten foot high walls, its size even overshadowing the camp grounds as blue columns supported the structure over the forest.

"What the he...heel," said Dannie stopping himself from cursing which got a laugh from Kaelea.

"Ha ha. 'Heel'. Really."

Dannie felt somewhat embarrassed at his wording but still felt somewhat satisfied at getting Kaeleas attention.

As they started tapping and testing the solid blue aura at their feet the teenagers were greatly impressed by Aliasse's power which seemed wildly different from theirs. It felt smooth like ice but was not really cold or warm and it didn't make any sound when hit other then a dull thud.

"Everyone."Aliasse started as the teenagers gave her their attention. "Your training will be conducted up here until you gain a degree of control over your powers. Fabricia your training will consist of controlling the Warthogs, driving them around the open area while Everyone else will train in individual areas. I've prepared targets for all of you to train with, don't worry about collateral damage just focus on developing control and understanding of your powers."

After refocusing the teenagers were all separated into individual areas by aura walls so they can't accidentally hurt one another.

Kevin stood alone in his area waiting then without sound a hole opened up in the floor and one of the black crates from before lifted up out of it.

The box opened up revealing and dozen quad rotor drones. A few of them started up and took to the air orbiting around Kevin as the box closed. He took a moment to figure out what he was supposed to do then he took in a deep breath as he tried to focus one of of the machines. He aimed his hand at one of them closing his eyes and trying to remember how he felt when he first displayed his powers, remembering that all in one day his girlfriend had dumped him over the phone and even said that she was now going out with one of Kevin's friends at school and if that wasn't bad enough he had gotten a E-mail saying he had failed a test to get into collage. He brooded over the news for a few moments before walking off to the kitchen and stubbed his small toe on a table leg. That was the last straw and the room just burst into flames.

Kevin remembered how his chest felt like it was being crushed and how his blood felt like it was boiling.

Opening his eyes he saw the drone start to smoke until bursting into flames dropping to the floor in a melting pool of plastic and circuitry.

"Well... that was a little easier then I thought," said Kevin as he repeated the act bringing down another of the drones.

One of the drones flying around Kevin stopped suddenly as it was hacked and the small craft flew up and away to observe the others.

Kaelea sat legs crossed lifting the crate with her telekinesis, separated it into its component parts then putting it back together again. She then moved on to the few hundred smaller steel parts and pieces that lay scattered about the floor all of them looking as through they could fit together.

Kaelea floated all of the pieces in the air and using her telesense felt every curve and crevice of all the pieces feeling were they fit together, moving repositioning and attaching them together like a giant puzzle. After fitting all the pieces together Kaelea had two neo-steel balls each about two feet in diameter. Kaelea then threw the two heavy balls around her area smashing them against the walls and each other until they were dented and flattened at places.

The twines crate was full of small pieces of plastic and steel and even little titanium A battle plate. Allan and his brother touched the pieces one by one before standing back. All of the small pieces then started moving and attaching together forming into a large dog. The twins held each others hands as they focused together making the junk dog move around step by step, it then sat before them lifting its plastic paw. Both of the brothers shook the dogs paw and then made the dogs component parts shift and change into a large bird then into a lion then a spider and lastly a large human. Upon seeing this the two boys seemed sad as they let the form of the man collapse into a pile of steel and plastic.

"That must be their grand father," Dannie thought with a air of pain to his thoughts as he felt a hint of regret in their hearts. Dannie had been monitoring the others as they trained while he also trained with Aliasse.

"Focus Dannie," Aliasse warned as she threw a orb of fierce energy his way.

Dannie jumped out of the way as a small explosion detonated behind him.

"You were watching the others. You really should focus on yourself,"Aliasse suggested as she fired a barrage of psi- orbs.

Quikly Dannie formed a Psionic barrier, explosions raked across it as he ran out from the static barriers side charging at Aliasse. She saw it coming and jumped into the air, coming down on top of him. Swiftly Dannie rolled to the side but as he got to his feet Aliasse threw a punch but instead it hit one of his barriers mere inches from his face.

"That was a close one. Good block Dannie but always watch your back." Aliasse said as a aura arm grabbed Dannie's legs from behind making him face plate onto the blue floor.

"Ah that was a dirty trick," Dannie complained as he picked himself up watching the aure hands retract back into the floor behind him.

"Your in enemy territory you should keep your eyes open and stay aware of your surroundings," Aliasse said.

"I thought we're being trained to control our powers so we don't accidentally hurt others?"

"That's true, however I think a smart young boy like you knows what could happen at the end of the year..." Aliasse said.

"...You mean the Zerg." Dannie replied with a sense of worry.

"Yes, they are scheduled to return by the end of this year so I would think you would want to have the skill to protect yourselves. And given that you lack offensive powers I think you need more training on how to properly defend yourself from a sneak attack."

Dannie relaxed his stance rubbing his neck as he thought it over. "Yeah you got a point. Most people are just going about their lives without a care in the world while those monsters are gathering their forces for a attack on Reach or maybe even Earth, I know the UNSC is preparing for it but no one know's how big the attack will be." Dannie replied in a uncharacteristically worried tone.

"Dannie I do not plan on using you or the others in the coming war however I do wise for you to be able to protect yourselves." said Aliasse.

"Yeah but what if the zerg are attracted to us because of our powers?"

"Don't worry about that I have ways of keeping you and the others from being sensed by zerg."

Fabricia sat inside one of the parked Warthogs drivers seats while she remotely controlled the others driving them around the obstical course of ramps, bumps and teen foot high columns.

While most of her focus was directed at watching the others train, she had always been a reserved and taciturn, feeling more comfortable around machines then people but when she started showing her supernatural power over machines even able to hack into heavily defended systems she became even more distant from people as she delved deeper into cyberspace until the day Aliasse appeared and explained to Fabricia that there were other people with special powers like her and the camp they would train at.

Fabricia was a little interested in meeting other people with powers like her. However her father who was in the military was a little causes to send his daughter to such a place, but he changed his mind when Aliasse reassured him that she would make sure his daughter was protected.

Fabricia continued watching from the drones eye camera while the others trained, she noted their powers all different but powerful and weak in their own ways.

She was now even more interested and curious, more about discovering how this _Psionic_ power works and where it comes from. With a thought she commanded the Warthogs to stop while she focused all of her attention on using their mazerlink to connect with some of the UNSCs orbital comm sats and from there she connected to a military data-base.

After a few minutes she worked her way through millions of date files trying to find anything that has to do with psionic powers eventually finding a ONI file containing detailed information on the Valkyria squad that fought during first zerg war two hundred years ago. Fabricia copied the files to her Warthogs small computer and got out of the ONI system erasing all evidence she was ever there before one of ONIs AI's found her.

Fabricia then looked through the date most of it detailing how the valkyria were created by transferring gene's from a Valkyrur to a human females by gene therapy resulting in the girls being granted considerably psionic power however this power was temporary but the girls abilities could be sustained by monthly doses of gene therapy.

The date files also had the names and pictures of hundreds of girls that underwent the therapy. The last parts of the date said that all attempts to copy the process failed as it required the genetic material of a Valkyrur and out of the three one was dead another was named as Aliasse who was the same Aliasse thats alive now and the last was Ellen, most of the date on her was missing which made Fabricia even more eager to discover who this Ellen was.

"Ellen? why are your records missing" Fabricia wondered as she conducted a historical search for the name.

* * *

 **Reach orbital station Gamma**

 **United Nations Space Command Defense Force**

 **Office of Captain Camron Laurencia**

The Captain yaned taking a sip of his coffee as his desk screen lit up with the face of a older man his uniform and the wall behind him barring the insignia ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence).

"Admiral Maves can I help you ?" Camron asked.

"Captain Laurencia, i'm calling because we've detected a intrusion into our top secret data banks." the Admiral stated not a hint of emotion in his voice.

"I take it the intruder was my daughter," Camron stated shome what gleeful that the ONI spook couldn't keep a little girl out of their most secure date files let alone _his_ little girl and there was the fact the Captain also knew that despite the Admirals calm faced exterior he was practically fuming on the inside.

"Yes. It was just like what Observer Aliasse said. She looked through the files concerning the Valkyria project created by that company centuries back and the three Valkyrur. hmp... I don't like playing nice because of her scheming and planning with those freaks, under normal condition's that little girl of yours would be in a world of trouble for braking into a ONI database," the Admiral stated a air of disdain in his voice.

"Careful Admiral one of those so called freaks is my daughter and another is the son of a major contributor to the Reach's military funding and equipment."

"Your mean Dannie Shayne. Son of Markus Shayne current head of the Horizon corp on Reach."

"Yes the very same. So if I were you I would show some respect to those kids especially since the Observer of Reach is handling them and their training."

"Hmph, those Observers are more trouble then their worth if you ask me expecally since they were suggested by our enemy in the first place. I don't understand why those fools two century's back even considered the idea of giving a civilian the same authority as a planet's president?" the Admiral stated barley showing any emotion.

"Thats because its a system that works. Allowing a civilian the same authority as a planet's President gives perspective to the leaders and gives the civilian population a voice in how our civilization is run as a whole and how it interacts with the environment and other species," the captain stated.

"Anyway... has Gamma station received the new longswords?" the Admiral asked.

"Yes we have. However I doubt a mere two hundred of the craft can hold off a swarm of Zerg even if their state of the art space superiority fighters," Captain Laurencia said.

"Every station and defense fleet orbiting Earth, Mars, Titan, and Reach are all equipped with those fighters along with the new F-99 Wombat drones so you better hope they can hold off the Zerg."

Captain Laurencia gave a sigh as he adjusted in his set. " With all due respect Admiral its not the fighters that are my concern. Its the lack of a fast reactionary force to intercept any Zerg attack force, static defenses won't hold out forever."

"Yes I know and understand you concern, we will be receiving more Longswords in the next few months and some new ships are coming online from our dockyards here in Epsilon Eridani. I've also heard of special project back Earth concerning a new class of ship that they plan on sending us even though it's just the prototype."

"Really? I wonder what their planning?"Captain thought. "Anyway was that all you wanted to talk about Admiral?"

"Yes it was. Good day Captain" said the Admiral as the screen blinked off leaving the Captain to scratch his head over the ONI spooks call. "I hope Fabricia is fine at that training camp," he said with more of a fathers concern.

* * *

 **Menachite Mountain campground.**

 **6:45 pm**

"Aah thats feels better," exclaimed Kaelea as she walked out from the bathroom in the girls cabin flopping her self on the couch then looking to her right to Fabricia who was still on her lab-top computer one of the few things she was allowed to bring. "The bath is free Fabricia... wait you still on that?"

Fabricia didn't reply much to Kaeleas annoyance. "Hey are you even hearing with me. Hellooo." Kaelea waved her hand between Fabricias face and the computer screen but still no response."Ok then!" Kalea said with a touch of spite as she pulled Fabricia's ear a little but still no response then she pulled a little more but still nothing Kaelea was then even more annoyed and pulled even harder making Fabricia head tilt to the side her streatching and turning red.

"Ouch that hurt," Fabricia exclaimed pulling back holding her ear.

"Finally you looked like a zombie staring at that screen." Kaelea teased.

Fabricias face quickly turned a shade redder as she looked quite embarrassed.

"So... what were you looking at?"

"Oh umm nothing, just uhh nothing."

"Your not a good liar are you," Kaelea said.

"Um no."

"Sooo what are you looking at. I know you can link with tech and control it so what are you doing on your tablet?" Kaelea asked now pushing the question a little far.

"Ahh"

"Fabricia," Aliasse called from the the second floors indoor balcony over-looking the couch.

"Um yes miss Aliasse?"

"It was hot today so go take a shower."

Fabricia hesitated a bit before she got it. "Uaa oh ok a," she said as she closed her lab-top and went to get some clean cloths as Kaelea sighed.

"Kaelea don't pester her. Fabricia is a shy and reserved young girl dont push her."

"Ok."

"Good," Aliasse said as she turned to enter her room. Aliasse sat at her table opening her own lab-top . "Calypso show me the date of today's training session."

On screen a series of charts and biometrics readings along with pictures of the six teenagers was displayed. "Everything looks ok and Fabricia did just what I expected her to do givin her history of hacking computer systems."

"Givin how easily she infiltrated the UNSC and ONIs systems her technopathy has only gotten stronger," Calypso stated. "I just hope she doesn't connect with any of my systems," the AI said with a air of nervousness in her tone making Aliasse to give a short laugh.

"I never thought I would ever hear you sound afraid Calypso. Does she frighten you that much?"

"Considering she can use her psionic powers to link to and control machines just like me and other AIs but without the need to use radio waves or other known methods of wireless control she has a distinct advantage over us. I don't want to even think about what a battle between her and a AI in cyber space would look like!"

"Well lets just pray that she doesn't get the idea in her head. By the way do you think she took the bait."

"Given the fact she took the date we planted in or rather ONI let us plant in their systems, she should maybe ask you about Ellen and the rest of what happened two hundred years ago some time soon. However I fail to see the need to go through this much trouble just get her to ask you about Ellen and the first Zerg war?"

"Yes I know it is a bother but considering her introverted nature I figured it's safer to get her to make the first step in opening up to others even if it may take some time and some complicated planing," Aliasse said as she looked out the window.

* * *

 **Epsilon Eridani systems far outer edge**

 **The Oort cloud**

 **December, 14, 2213**

Space twisted and opened revealing a pure white light in the beyond, as a absolutely massive organisem exited from the warpgate. The Zerg Leviathan was far larger and far more thickly armored then even a Alpha Behemoth, with ultralisk like armor on the back and bands of overlapping plates of armor on the oval shaped underbelly, a Nydus worm shaped head in front and a cluster of real Nydus worms extending from below the area that could be called a neck and behind them were two giant armored fins, from the top and sides of the neck area were four massive horn like spine cannons.

Inside the Leviathans nerve center three humanoid figures watched the stars pass by on the organic screen.

"So this is the star system the humans have colonised," said Brood queen Niadra looking at Eridanus the systems star as it shined in the distance but still far closer then the others.

"Our mission here is to raid the colony world for biomass," stated Navash. "But only at the end of the humans calendar year. Until then we will send scouts to observe and gather information on the humans."

Niadra gave a sigh.

"Don't be impatient Niadra."Ellen said to the brood queen."Its a good quality of a leader to wait and think about their coming battle's. Anyway I'll be going now I'll be watching your attack on the ground so don't disappoint me and remember.-"

"That we are only to attack their space forces and one city and only after the humans year is up. Yes we know our empress," Navash said repeating her and Niadra's orders.

"Good."

Ellen quickly spun on her heel leaving the Nerve center for one of the dozens of hangers inside the massive Zerg creature.

Large segments along the Leviathans belly opened up spewing forth a dozen Abyss Rays, all of them loaded up with the next generation of Locust which now is no larger then a common house fly. The formation flew to the inner system and sent out a Telepathic signal that brought a small human space yacht to them It was piloted by a human who was the current leader of the Horizon company's branch on Reach.

The docking door opened into the hall way as the man stood waiting for his master to step out.

"Hello Markus this is the first time we actually met in person isn't it."

The man swallowed as he was looked at the armored form of the young looking woman standing before him. "Its a pleasure to meet you at last miss Ellen." the man said his voice trembling a bit.

Ellen didn't look very pleased at the response. "Really. I know your not to keen about that parasite in your head nor about having the torch being passed to you from your predecessor so drop the act."

Markus Shayne the CEO of Horizon corp Reach division based in New Alexandria looked shocked for a moment before regaining his composer." Very well miss Ellen but can we please return to Reach It will look suspicious if I am away for too long. And it took me a full two days to reach this meeting spot."

"Very well I suppose I can relax until we get to Reach," said Ellen as she walked off to the shower.

A short time later the space yacht made a 180 degree turn flying away from the group of Abyss Rays but a few light minutes away the light bouncing off from it and the Zerg reached a ONI stealth prowler testing its systems in the far out reaches of the star system. The ship and its ten man crew received a clear view of a human ship with the ID of the craft and its owner.

* * *

 **Reach**

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **December, 26, 2213**

At the edge of the forest surrounding the camp Dannia stood atop a cliff face staring out at the valley below as it was his favorite place to find some alone time.

After a few months of training with Aliasse everyone's abilities and control had become stronger, Kaelea, Kevin and the twins had also started developing weak telepathy that while allowing mind to mind communication was still far more limited in range then Dannies.

 **"Dannie miss Aliasse wants to speck to all of us so get back here please** ," projected Kaelea her voice echoing in his head.

 **"Be right their"** he replied with a sigh before standing up. "I wonder what miss Aliasse wants to talk about," Dannie asked himself as he sprinted through the December snow leaving a trail in the could white powder that blanketed the forest as he zigzagged side to side ducking under the low hanging branches weighted down down by the snow.

Meanwhile back in the boys cabin.

"Maybe shes graduating us since we've been passing all of her tests?" James suggested to his brother.

"Heh yeah like that one time she left us out in the forest for a whole two weeks to fend for ourselves with nothing but a few pieces of camping gear," Kevin quipped.

"Oh come on it wasn't that bad," stated Kaelea. "The purpose of that camping trip was to learn to use our powers in a more practical way. Your just jealous Dannie caught more fish and deer then you," Kaelea said as everyone remembered skinning and eating them.

"Yeah well with his ability to sense anything in a wide area is a bit of a cheat," said Kevin.

"But It was you who actually cooked the food while Dannie just found it," Fabricia stated as she read a book.

"Don't forget about me I helped catch the fish and did most of the work building the shelter," yelled Kaelea.

"Don't worry Kaelea we all appreciate how you dug that cave," said Allen.

"And how you moved those big boulders and trees to cover up the entrance from the cold wind," said James.

"Thanks you two," Kaelea said giving the twins a smile. "At least some people appreciate me."

"We all appreciate you making the shelter Kaelea," Kevin said as Dannie walked in bringing some snow with him.

"What's up I thought we had today off?" he asked brushing the snow off his shoes and coat.

"Yeah us to," said Allen as Kevin caught sight of Aliasse passing the window and shortly after entering.

"Miss Aliasse what's with the gathering didn't we have today off," Kevin asked as Aliasse put her coat on the rake, shooting him a glare that could freeze water as she walked to the middle of the room.

"Well since all of you have put such hard work into your training and made good progress I've decided that you all deserve a little reward so at the end of the year all of us will to go to the new years anniversary and im paying for all expenses," Aliasse said as her students stared at her.

"The new years fair at Reaches capital !. I've never been to anything like that," Fabricia thought as the others all reacted in their own ways.

"Wow I can't wait to try all the food maybe it will be like the fairs back at home," James said turning to his brother.

"Yeah but It will probably be a lot bigger from what I've heard about it," Allan replied as both boys became even more excited.

"That's the biggest celebration for the whole year," said Kevin.

"I can already taste the cotton candy and ice cream and feel the wind rushing through my hair from riding on the roller coasters," Kaelea said to herself.

"Wow... thanks," Dannie said the only word that came to mind.

"I figured that you all have earned a vacation after all the hard work you put into your training. All of you can also consider it your graduation party because afterwards all of you will be going back to your homes," Aliasse explained.

"Miss Aliasse," Dannie started." Thanks for everything I honestly don't know what I would have done if you hadn't taken me... all of us in and showed us what our powers were and how to control them."

The room went silent as everyone gave Aliasse a thankful smile.

"I know how all of you feel, but I have some things I need to explain."Aliasse said as she continued." The government of Reach and the UEG have made it a policy to keep the existence of humans with Psionic power like you a secret from the public."

The six teenagers thought back to the information on the Valkyria project Fabricia shared with them during the camping trip.

"Is this about Ellen and the Valkyria projects from back during the first Zerg war," Kaelea asked.

"And the fact we're all the descendents of everyone who was in that project," Dannie asked.

Aliasse smiled on the inside as her plan to let them find out about such things on their own has worked, it was a bit of trouble arranging the information to be loaded into a ONI date base but its was worth it to let the kids learn about the first Zerg war on their own and it kept Fabricia occupied and focused. .

"Yes it does." Aliasse answered as everyone looked at her more intently.

Aliasse then explained about the truth of what happened two hundred years ago and the fact that their powers can be directly traced back to either her, Ellen or Alicia. "...And that's not all the main reason the government wants to track you is because your psionic powers may attract the Zerg, and with them dew to return by the end of the year it's in everyone's best interest that you remain in sight should they attack.

The teenagers gave disappointed looks and sighs.

"So you think the Zerg will come after us?" Kevin asked.

"Its not a 100% guarantee but yes the Zerg are attracted and very sensitive to psionic powers, so its very possible that they will come after you..." said Aliasse as her students all looked afraid. "But don't worry I don't think they will attack till after the years end and when they do come I won't let them touch a hair on any of your heads so don't worry."

"Thanks teacher but I think we could all fight if they did come after us," said Dannie balling his fist which got a laugh from Aliasse.

"Hah hah. I have no doubt but you should let the UNSC handle the invasion. You should focus on surviving."Aliasse,s voice became lower and more fearful. "Just promise me that when the zerg attack comes you all will hide and not use your powers unless absolutely necessary,"

Kevin, Kaelea, James, Allan, Dannie and Fabricia all shared a look with each other before agreeing.

* * *

 **Reach orbit Gamma station.**

The image of the station shifted and moved as the monorail traversed its path around the monorail track of the station, Reach its selfe coming into view in the back round as the train stopped.

 _"Hanger 14, please exit the train... Next stop is the main biodome I repeat the next stop is the bio dome,"_ repeated the automated announcer, as Captain Laurencia exited the monorail train joining the crowed on the platform and walked through a few passageways before arriving at the hanger 14 control room.

"Captain Laurencia," called a man standing behind a group of a dozen younger officers monitoring their stations, the screens displaying a few hundred craft that we're flying around the station both military and civilian.

"Lieutenant commander Ekres. Are the pilots finding the new Longswords adequate?"

"Yes in fact were currently in the middle of a training exercise for the new craft."

* * *

 **255 kilometers away**

 **Space combat training zone 4**

 **Artificial debris Training Zone**

A missile streaked through the empty space as a barrage of tracer fire ripped it to pieces. The black triangular longsword cut its main engines flipping a 180 degrees using its RCS thrusters and firing its 110mm rotary rail gun sending the neosteel tipped rounds screaming through space ripping the training drone to so many blasted fragments.

"Scratch tin can number twenty," said the pilot as he pushed the engines back to maximum reversing his movement.

~Hey flyboy leave some for us,~ called another pilot as they and two other Longswords joined formation with Flyboy.

"Hay its not my fault if you all are slow," said Flyboy as he banked right passing a cluster of dabri.

"How many more drones we got Bull?"

~Four. One at 9 o clock high and three at 7 o clock.~ Bull answered.

"Ok I'll take the one and you three take out the others," Flyboy ordered his squadron.

~Roger~ they all yelled back over the radio.

The four craft split up taking their own pray .

"Hashbrown, Shadow lets split into a vertical delta formation, 'I'll go high you two go low," said Bull as she got acknowledgments from the two.

The three of them split up a few kilometers while continuing forwards. The drones changed their direction to them and fired their missiles.

Bull activated her longswords AMS shooting off a half dozen small point defense missiles that traced a intercept path to the incoming missiles and shortly after Bull saw the two incoming blips disappear off her senser screen.

"Ok time to get the horns," Bull said to herself as she hit the afterburner reaching her max speed in just five seconds. She was forced back into her chair as the g-forces hit her like a airbag in a car crash, she blinked and focused carefully aiming her HUDs gun sites on the incoming drone while it fired its guns at her, with and few careful puffs of her RCS thruster she evaded the gunfire by scant inches as she took a fraction of a second to aim and fire her ventral MAC gun the 120mm shell screamed thru space exploding the drone like glass.

"Target down," Bull said as she checked her sensor screen for her wing mates seeing just two dots on her screen.

~Target down,~ Shadow reported.

~Target down,~ Hashbrown reported.

Bull gave a sigh of relief hearing her squad-mates, even though they're just training the drones have dummy ammo while the Longswords have live ammo, its still stressful to not her from your squad mates in a combat zone real or fake.

~Boggy five down,~ Flayboy reported.

~Roger that Alpha squad return to base over, ~ said a air control officer.

"Roger that control over," Bull responded as she banked returning to Gamma station.

Soon after Alpha squad docked their Longswords in the hanger as Captain Laurencia and Lieutenant commander Ekres watched them from the second level control room.

"Lieutenant Commander Ekres do you think these new Londswords are up to fighting the swarms of Zerg?" the stations Captain asked with a very serious tone of voice.

"We've never had any space based conflict with the Monsters so we don't have the date to formulate a proper simulation like with ground and air combat from the war two hundred years ago, and because of that we don't know what the Zerg will hit us with other then massive numbers. But I think the Longswords will prove be a powerful weapon against the Zerg whenever they show their ugly face,s," The Lieutenant commander answered.

"I hope your correct... Also the shipyards has just rolled out the last of the new Stalwart class light Frigates and they should be arriving any moment now."

"Oh!. Well then we should be well prepared for any incursion then," the Lieutenant commander said with confidence.

* * *

As the UNSC prepared its forces and the people of Reach went about their lives a small force of Abyss rays warped into Reaches atmosphere just above the ocean and took a few minutes to get their barrings, before flying to the nearest landmass, once over land the Abyss-Rays released swarms of the smaller Locust.

 **[Chapter end]**


	3. Chapter 3

Starcraft is the property of Blizzard.

Halo is the property of Microsoft.

* * *

[Darkness is complete] Thanks I'm glad you like my story.

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 **Return of the Swarm part 3**

 **Planet Reach**

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **January, 1st, 2214**

 **Capital park 12:00 AM**

Capital park resting in the shadow of the warpgate and between the airports surrounding it were filled to the brim by tens of thousands of people as they all watched a giant clock as it counted down the time to the new year.

"TEN!"

Hundreds of voices called in unison.

"NINE!"

The people yealled in anticapation as the clocks all over Reach counted down.

"EIGHT!"

The year was ending as a new one was arriving.

"SEVEN!" James yelled.

"SIX!" Allan yelled.

"FIVE!" Kevin Yelled.

"FOUR!" Yelled Kaelea.

"TH, THREE!" Fabricia Hesitantly called out with the others.

"TWO!" Yelled Aliasse.

"ONE!" Shouted twenty two thousand people as the sky illuminated from hundreds of fireworks bursting in the night sky in as many colors. Everyone was enthralled by the new year celebration as Aliasse watched her students go about the fair enjoying themselves.

Kaelea and Fabricia ran off to a food stand while Kevin took the twins on a roller coaster.

"Well their having fun," stated Dannie.

"Yes. What about you aren't you going to join them," Aliasse asked.

"Heh yeah well I got my own plans."

"Are you meeting your father," Aliasse asked.

Dannie sighed before answering. "Yeah. He asked to meet and talk about... well you know."

"I guess it's hard to be the son of a rich and influential Man," Aliasse stated thinking back to when her friend Lily princess of Gallia had to take her fathers place as leader of their nation and then her daughter after her and her son after her.

"Hmp. Yes. Yes it is... well see you later teacher i'm heading off now," Dannie said as he turned around and left leaving Aliasse to her thoughts.

Aliasse felt odd and alone despite all of the people around her, she turned to Kaelea and Fabricia both enjoying their fish and rice from the Japanese food vendor.

"Well they seem to be enjoying themselves," said a voice amongst the crowed.

Aliasse barley recognised the voice as it spoke again.

"Long time no see Aliasse. Its been what two hundred years."

Aliasse tensed up as she finally recognised the voice turning around. Standing there before her was Ellen in a warm looking coat, shirt and jeans looking the same as she did two hundred years ago.

"El... Ellen!. What are you doing here... and how come I couldn't sense you?" Aliasse said with a raised voice as her body tensed up ready for a fight.

"Calm down Aliasse I'm not here to fight," Ellen said holding her hands up.

"Ok... let's go someplace more private then."

The reunited Valkyrur walked through the crowds bumping shoulders with a few people as they made their way to a Ferris wheel entering the enclosed cabin.

"So what do you want to talk about?" asked Aliasse still a little on guard as the Ferris wheel cabin slowly ascended.

"Relax Aliasse i'm not here to fight. I'm just a observer here."

"So your not participating in the coming war," questioned Aliasse as one part of her heart was glad to see Ellen again while another was cautious and a little angered at her.

"No and I would hardly call it a war. Maybe a raid," Ellen said as she looked out at the fairgrounds and the many thousands of people below them wondering which ones will be alive after the coming attack.

Aliasse calmed down a little noticing a strange black and gold collar with red inset crystals around Ellen's neck. "What's that around your neck."

"Oh this. "Ellen replied placing two fingers on the thick metallic collar. "Its something Izsha made from Azrumaths suit, "Its a more compact and modified version of his Psionic stealth device. So long as I don't use my powers it keeps me invisible to the psionic senses of others including other Valkyrur but allows me to sense others," she explained.

"I see so that's now you got on Reach without me knowing. Would I be right in assuming that your swarm is close by?" Aliasse asked as they started descending.

"That go's without saying." Ellen answered as her expression changed to a more serious one. "Aliasse have you felt anything... strange about a certain mountain on this planet." Ellen's words sounded more like a statement then a question.

Aliasse expression shifted to a more serious one."Its called Menachite mountain and yes I've kept a close eye on it."

"I think there's a Xel'naga or rather ancient Valkyrur facility underneath it with something of interest inside."

"So why didn't you just take it when you first found this world?" Aliasse asked.

"I have my reason's. I'm playing the long game so I have to be patient until the right time. But I would like it if we went to investigate it together some time later."

Aliasse sighed being quite perplexed at Ellen's reasoning. "Ellen, I know it may be pointless but would it be possible to just call off the war before it starts."

"Aliasse. "Ellen replied with a regretful tone and look. "I know it's hard on you but I have to follow through with my plan. The only reason humanity has progressed as far as it has is because of the threat of the Zerg that will return one day. If I don't follow through with my threat humans will get lax and start slaking off and some corruption will start in the government maybe resulting in a rebellion or two against the UEG or even a civil war. As hard as it is to accept the threat of my swarm has kept humanity on the straight and narrow."

Aliasse gave a resigned sighed at Ellen's words because everything Ellen said was true. "I know. But it doesn't mean I have to like it."

"As you shouldn't Aliasse. "Ellen said as the ride ascended again. "Its my place to bare the burden of that while you just guide humanity until they'er... grown up more."

Aliasse gave a relived sigh as she recomposed herself. "Ha, yeah I know. Sorry I never even asked how you were doing."

"Oh I've been well, How's those kids you've been teaching," Ellen asked.

Aliasse tensed up as she realized Ellen knows about her students.

"They've been doing well. I've put them through some hard training to develop their psionic abilities. I suspect many more people will start being born with psionic powers like them. However I don't think they will be in large numbers."

"That's good to hear." Ellen said with a smile.

* * *

 **Meanwhile in a cafa a few blocks away**

A middle aged man with black hair slick backed hair sat at a table reading text on his tablet when someone came up to him and sat down across from him.

"Dad you wanted to talk?" Dannie asked.

"It's good to see you son, its been what a few months since you left for that training camp." said Markus Shayne.

"Yeah... how's mom?"

"Shes fine although like me it was a bit... difficult for her to accept this turn of events concerning your abilities... but she's fine now."

"That's good to hear," Dannie said as a waiter stopped by their table.

"Are you ordering anything sir."

"I'll just have some tea please," Dannie replied.

"Thank you sir," the waiter said as she walked off.

"So what is it you really wanted to see me about?" Dannie asked looking his father in the eyes.

Markus shrugged blinking his eyes."Well it's about the company."

"Yeah dad I don't think I'll be a good fit there."

"Maybe, maybe not I at least want you to try. You'll be twenty soon and you have to think about your future."

Dannie gave a telling sigh. "I'll try but don't expect me to use my _gifts_ to cheat at work."

"I wouldn't dream of it."Markus replied." I have a plan for a military project to utilise your gifts and those like you to add in the coming war. Im sure you know of the coming attack by the Zerg."

"Yeah who doesn't," Dannie replied as the waiter returned placing his tea on the table taking his payment and walking off to another table.

"Well my plan is to create a special forces team consisting of those gifted with psionics to fight against the Zerg however I doubt it will become a reality for a few years or even decades maybe even a hundred years considering the rarity of people with such powers."

The idea was practical but was limited and then their's the idea of the others being willing participants. "Let me guess the project will mostly be aimed at collecting date until the number of people who develop these abilities increase's," stated Dannie.

"Yes. Developing a greater understanding of psionics and how the trait is passed from one generation to the next is very important."

Dannie thought over the idea of such a plan as he sipped his tea. "I'll join your little project so long as I get paid for being a lab rat. However I can't speak for my friends."

"I'ed hardly call you a lab rat. Also i'll have to talk with their parents over the matter anyway."

* * *

 **Meanwhile back at the Fair.**

Kevin the twins, Kaelea and Fabricia found each other and continued to enjoy the fair.

"Hey wheres Miss Aliasse and Dannie?" asked James as the others just now noticed.

"Huh? yeah they just up and left," said Kaelea.

"Well maybe they had their own plans," wondered Kevin.

Fabricia looked around trying to find the others in the crowed finally sighting both Aliasse and Dannie approaching them. "Hay there they are," she said pointing to them.

"Sorry everyone I had someone I had to talk to and Dannie was meeting his father," Aliasse said.

"Who were you meeting?" Dannie asked.

"Oh uh a old friend," Aliasse said with a half smile. "Well let's get going and have some fun shall we."

"Oh oh let's go on that big ride over there," Allan yelled excitedly pointing to the rollercoaster.

Aliasse gave a smile as she glanced back over her shoulder catching sight of Ellen as she turned around walking off. "Well let's get going everyone."

Aliasse and her students went about the rest of the night riding roller coaster's and many other rides and eating delicious food from all the different food stands and having a great time along with everyone else.

* * *

 **Menachite Mountain**

 **Campground**

 **January 2nd, Sunday, 9:55 PM**

Aliasse and her students were all gathered around the table in the main cabin enjoying their last meal together as it was time for the teenagers to return to their homes and everyone felt a little conflicted between returning to their families and leaving each other.

"I got all my things packed up miss Aliasse. Its still feels a little strange leaving you all,"Kaelea said sipping the last of her drink," Still I'm glad to be going back home but I'll never forget the time we spent together."

Everyone else felt the same as they all reacted in their own ways, They had known each other for only a few months but they all felt a little like family.

"I'll miss you too Kaelea," Kevin said." But we can always give each other a call once in a while. Maybe you and I can go on a date sometime."

Kaelea gave a small laugh at the dry humor. "Yeah no your not my type."

"Hah shot down lover boy," Dannie commented finishing off his food. "Anyway has everyone thought about my proposal last night.

Hearing this Aliasse glanced between her students as they each thought over the idea of being a test subject for Horizon corp which is run by Dannie's father although the pay offer was quite good.

The twins gave each other a glance. "We'll do it."

"Really."Kevin asked. "I wouldn't have thought you two would want to."

"Yeah well our family isn't the richest so the money would help out a lot," James said.

"Yeah I guess so," Kaelea said under her breath. "Hey Dannie you better take care of them or I'll turn you into a human pretzel," she joked giving him a glare.

"Yeah yeah ok I'll make sure nothing happens to them," Dannie replied holding his hand up defensively.

There was a muffled roar of a jet engine making everyone turn to the window.

"Well I guess your rides are here," Aliasse said as she stood up from the table." Everyone please finish up your meal and get your things."

Everyone finished their food and went to their room to pack most of what they had were just cloths but they had bought some trinkets at the new years fair.

Soon they were all gathered at the large field where they all trained for the first time at as the pilot of the Orbital Taxi waited.

"Well this is good-by for now everyone. I hope all of you use your abilities wisely and don't abuse them or else I'll get in trouble," Aliasse stated with a underlying tone of seriousness.

"Don't worry teacher I'll try not to burn my house down again," Kevin replied as he created a flame in his hand then closed his hand snuffing out the psionic flame.

"Stop that the pilot will see you," Kaelea said with a hushed tone.

"Eh sorry."

"Goodby miss Aliasse," said Allan.

"We'll miss you," said James.

"I'll miss the two of you too," Aliasse said as she and the twins hugged.

"Enough of this mussy stuff we should be going." Dannie said as he lifted his backpack on his shoulder. "Thanks for everything teacher."

Everyone said their goodbys and then boarded the orbital taxi. Its engines wined shooting out a powerful stream of wind as it ascended up into the sky and shortly after exited the atmosphere taking its passengers to their separate destinations across Reach as Aliasse was left alone.

Aliasse gave a sigh as the aircraft left her sight high in the blue sky. "There they go... well time to give my report to the president."

* * *

 **Esztergom**

 **Reach Capital building**

 **Presidents office**

President Cynthia Hargress took a sip her coffee as she read through the draft given by Markus Shayne CEO of Horizon corps Reach division on his project to research psionic powers.

"Mmm a interesting plan however using teenagers even his own son seems a bit in the grey moral area," The lady president mused to herself.

A moment later the screen on Cynthia's desk blinked on showing her secretary.

"Yes."

"Miss president Aliasse is here to speak with you."

"Send her in," the Cynthia replied, a moment later the doors opened and Aliasse walked in taking a set in front of the presidential desk.

The lady president taking another sip of her coffee.

"Miss president im here to give my report on my project."

"I see and what of your progress?" the president asked with great interest.

"Well i've been successful in properly educating the six young teenagers in controlling their abilities however it seems they are weaker than the valkyria squad from the first Zerg war."

"I see. Do you think their in any way capable of combat?" Cynthia asked wanting to know.

"No" Aliasse answered not needing to think over the matter. "They are in no way capable of serving in a combat role especially against the Zerg. For one thing their to few in number and as I said their powers are too weak to fight in a real war. And their still just kids," Aliasse finished with a stern expression.

"Sorry miss Aliasse I had to ask the question," president Cynthia said clasping her hands together on her desk. "But moving on I would like your input on the matter of Horizon corps program to research and understand psionic abilities. I would think you know of it?"

Aliasse took a breath as she collected her thoughts. "Yes I know of it, one of my students Dannie is the son of Horizon's Reach branch CEO."

"Oh! I didn't know that," Cynthia replied in genuine surprise.

"During the new year celebration Dannie had a talk with his father over the matter and he accepted to join the project. And before my students left to return to their families two brothers, twins Allan and James said that they would join the project too."

The lady president gave a shrug as she took a final sip her coffee. "I see well back to my question."

"My opinion of that project in that's it's necessary to further our understanding of psionic powers, so long as the participants are willing and proper safety is observed."

At that moment a thought shoot through Cynthia's mind. "If I may ask miss Aliasse why don't you join the project yourself."

"Im... different then the others. Im a Valkyrur im not... completely human anymore," Aliasse confessed as the president listened in curiosity. "Valkyrur like me start out as human but when we take a fatal or near fatal wound the shock awakens our bodies and psionic aura. We... change becoming more then what we were before. For instance I don't need to breath or eat as much as a normal person and I heal much faster than a normal human and I haven't aged since my twentieth birthday," Aliasse explained getting a somber look on her face.

"I understand. So the students you took under your tutelage are simply humans with psionic abilities while you are something more than human. I can now understand why you joining such a research project would be pointless, any information gained from you would be almost useless. It would only be applicable to other Valkyrur and not normal human biology."

"President Cynthia!" Calypso yelled over the speakers" The Zerg are attacking Gamma station."

* * *

 **Gamma Station Command Center**

Captain Cameron Laurencia ran out of his personnel quarters as soon as he heard the klaxon alarm sound. He ran through the station passing hundreds of other UNSCDF personnel as they like him were going to their duty stations.

As the Captain ran he felt the station vibrate from impacts. As he approached the command center a pair of Marines saluted the stations Captain, he used the security ID scanner and the double doors opened and closed behind him. The room was fairly large with two C shaped rows of terminals one in the middle of the room and the other along the edge of the room their operator's manning their stations with nervous fervor as they coordinated the stations forces and defenses as a force of a hundred Zerg flyers swarmed around the station attacking it and the fleet of ships around it.

The row of nine screens above the terminals split into smaller screens displayed the ongoing battle outside showing blurs of Zerg flyers, tracer fire from rail guns, lasers, missile's explosions from the station and the surrounding UNSCDF warships.

"Status report!" Captain Cameron yelled as he stopped in front of a holotable in the middle of the room and the C shaped cluster of terminals displaying the embattled space around Gamma station in a 3D hologram.

The closest operator a young woman in her mid 20s turned to face the her Captain. "Sir a minutes ago a group of over a hundred zerg flyers of a unknown type appeared and attacked Gamme station and our defense fleet. Civilian ships have either docked or fled the area."

Captain Cameron was intrigued and needed to learn more about this new type of Zerg. "Show me."

The operator turned back to her station and typed a few commands in the flat screen and the wall screen in front changed to show a blurred freeze frame of one of the Zerg flyers. The picture was quickly scanned and cleaned now showing detailed data of it displayed.

Captain Camron studied the date and the first thought that crossed his mind was that it looked like a Wyvern from some fantasy novel or movie.

It had a similar shape to a Mutalisk but was a little larger.

The Zerg Wyvern measured 70 feet long and 60 feet wide wing tip to wing tip. Its wings were a fleshy version of a birds feathered wings containing a network of thousands of tiny organs no larger than a few centimeters across each pulsating with psionic energy.

The head had four horns, one armored pair angled back over top the head with a small array of sensor organs in them, the second pair held spine guns that extended out from the sides of the head and pointed forward''s.

The legs extended out from the sides of the pelvis, jointed like a dogs but armored and clawed like a reptile with overlapping plates of armor and two long half cylinder shaped pods each holding twenty micro-glaives each ran lengthwise along the thighs. The forelegs were oversized spine guns with four razor sharp claws on the feet, two thicker ones coming off the back and two longer ones in front.

The long wide tail was covered top and bottom by overlapping triangular plates of armor with rows of large oval shaped fins extending from the sides each containing larger more powerful version of the same psionic organs the wings have all of which propal the Zerg and give it great speed and maneuvering abilities.

The upper torso was thickly armored front and back with thinner more flexible V shaped armor plates along the midsection. Two oval shaped pods connected to the back by a arm like connector each holding twenty micro-glaives.

As Camron examined the image he could only wonder at what this new Zerg was capable of, but his thoughts quickly shifted to protecting the station and Reach Along with his family.

"What the status of the fleet?" Captain Camron asked as he continued to watch the ongoing battle.

"The fleet is holding off the attackers but their taking increasing damage to their defense systems," answered another male operator.

"The station has taken minor damage Captain it seems the zerg forces are focusing their attacks on the defense fleet," said another of the operators.

"Have our Longswords launched yet?"

"Half have launched and the other half are preparing to take off," the operator answered.

"Good now have the defense fleet spread out more. If were bunched together like this we'll incur friendly fire and their point defense's will be less useful." Captain Camren ordered.

* * *

In hanger 15 Red squadron had suited up and entered their Longswords from their they were loaded onto large elevators and moved up to the launch deck.

~Its about time we saw some action,~ yelled Hashbrown over the radio.

"Settle down kid were going into a real fight against the Zerg so keep your cool and focus on your flying," Flyboy yelled back at the rookie pilot.

~Flyboys right Hashbrown, you'll just get shot down for real if you go off half baked like the first time you flew,~ Bull stated reminding the young pilot about how he got his callsign.

"Sigh... fin," Hash brown replied remembering the first time he flew in flight school he was shot down and crashed and his wrecked training broadsword looked like a piece of shredded cooked hash brown.

Red squadrons Longswords jerked as the elevator stopped the hanger doors parted revealing the ongoing space battle beyond.

~Red squadron.~ said a operator over the radio. ~Your orders are to defend Gamma station and destroy any Zerg around it. Our defense fleet will handley the rest of the enemy forces.

"Ok Red squadron you heard the lady let's protect our nest," said Flyboy.

A moment later Red squadron launched into the thick of the chaotic battle, Zerg and UNSCDF forces were flying everywhere shooting everywhere as railgun tracer fire, crimson laser beams and detonating Archer missiles painted a picture of war and chaos on the pitch black of canvas of space.

Hashbrown quickly reoriented him selfe and joined his wing man Shadow, they banked right their HUD catching sight of a few of those new zerg flyers making a run against two Charon class light frigates.

~Two threats dead ahead. Lets get em rookie follow me,~ Shadow said as he hit his throttle.

"Ugh right," Hash brown replied as he followed.

Shadow locked on to the Zerg flyers launching a barrage of four mini ASGM-2 and two large ASGM-3 missiles the cylinders of plasteel jetted through the void tracking the Wyverns as they weaved around evading the point defense fire of the surrounding UNSC ships. The frigates turrets were firing with as much accuracy as they could muster but the two zerg were far too quick to hit especially at close range.

Wyverns launched a barrage of dozens of micro-glaive's blasting turrets across the two frigates to pieces. As the two Wyverns jetted passed the now defenseless ships they sensed missiles chasing after them and the Wyvern's legs lifted up aiming backwards and fired. The spine glaives that were a evolution of the old generation of spines but with limited tracking abilities detonated the missiles as Shadows ventral gun lind up with the Wyverns in his HUD and with a pull of the trigger sent a high velocity shell screaming through space cutting a bloody hole through one of the zerg Wyverns its body drifting limp through space.

The second Wyvern swiftly turned around tucking in its wings and with a flick of its tail turned 180 degrees to counter attack launching its own barrage of micro glaives.

Both Shadow and Hashbrown split up turning right and left as the glaives following pursuing their targets. Hashbrown activated his fighters AMS system and a half dozen mini missiles launched from his craft intercepting the slightly larger glaives.

Hashbrown checked his sensors seeing that the Wyvern was pursuing his wing man. "Shadow!" said Giles in concern as he flipped his longsword a 180 degrees to aid his wingman.

Shadow weaved around using his RCS thrusters to keep moving around while launching mini-missiles at his pursuer but impossibly the Wyvern dodged the fire twisting and turning flexing its tail and wings. It was almost too fast for the tracking system to keep a bed on it even at this range and all of the missiles ether missed or were shot out of space by the creatures head mounted spine guns. The very fact that it could do so while maneuvering like it did meant it must have crazy fast reaction time.

"Dame your a fast bastard!" Shadow cursed feeling the dull thuds of impacts from the Wyverns spine guns pelting his longsword hull luckley the hits only struck secondary systems... so far.

Catching sight of a Mako class corvette entering the battle Shadow turned at high G to lead his pursuer into its point defenses.

While continuing to evade Shadow flew right past the Mako as its point defense turrets started tracking and shooting their new target but again the Wyvern jetted around at such a high G that any human would not only block out but would have at least a few broken bones and pulverised organs from the sudden high velocity turns even s lazers singed its wings. It wasn't that the point defense guns were slow but rather that the Wyvern could get out of the firing trajectory before the turrets' could fire.

Shadow cut the engines drifting as he flipped his longsword around just as the Wyvern appeared out from behind the Mako whose point defense guns were all but useless at such close ranges.

"Eat this," Shadow felled firing his twin 110mm gatling rail guns their vibrations shaking the fighter as they spewed forth a hail of gunfire.

Thousand's of armor piercing explosive rounds crossed the empty space ripping the Wyvern to pieces but the beast aimed its remaining leg at the human craft just before its brain was separated from its body and shot a large psionically charged spine piercing right through the longswords armor and one of its main engines.

"Shit," Shadow cursed as he checked the damage but soon he saw the blips of another of those monsters heading straight for him. Quickly he fired off a few missiles only for them to be intercepted.

The Wyvern straightened its flight path for a final attack but was interrupted as a two missiles struck it side on stanning the black of space with bits of blood and gore.

"You ok Shadow?" asked Hashbrown as he decelerated bringing his Longsword alongside his wingmans.

"Yeah i'm fine but one of my engines is shot up. Im a shitting duck so dock with me so we can get back to the hanger."

Hash brown maneuvered his craft over Shadows so both of them were back to back, both pilots felt a dull metallic clank as the two longswords docked.

"Synchronizing systems... were good to go," Shadow said as he left his long sword for the fully intact one his wingman is piloting.

The linked craft jetted back towards Gamma station as the battle seemed to die down a bit until it stopped completely ending as the Zerg attack force retreated.

A dozen Charon, Stalwart class Frigates along with a few Halberd class Destroyers and a few Mako corevett's halted their fire as the last of the Wyverns left their weapons range.

* * *

 **Gamma station command center**

Captain Cameron gave a relived sigh as the attack ended placing his hands on the display table it was then he thought clearly and had one thought on his mind.

"Statues!"

A few moments passed as he heard the sound of typing on keyboard's. "Sir the station has sustained minor damage to area's three, four and fifteen. We've also lost twenty of our defense turrets. Casualty reports are still coming in," the female operator reported.

Camron gave another sigh as another important thought crossed his mind.

"So now anyone want to tell me how those Zerg got passed our sensor grid?" the question directed at everyone.

* * *

 **Esztergom**

 **January 3rd Monday**

In the office of the president of Reach gathered many people of both the UNSC, UNSCDF, ONI, civilian government and a few scientists.

The door swung open and everyone eyes met president Cynthia Hargress enter with Aliassa.

"Good day everyone," the lady president said as she walked to her set at the head of the table Aliasse standing beside her. "All of us know why were here so let's get to business. I believe it goes without saying that the attack on Gamma station was a probing attack ment to test our defenses."

There were a few nodding and humming as nearly all the gathered generals and admirals agreed with the assessment.

"I agree."Admiral Maves said," We can expect another attack soon."

"The question is how big will the next attack will be?" asked Captain Camron Laurencia.

With a glance Aliasse knew what was on the minds of everyone even without them asking. However they all hesitated because all of them felt a bit unnerved by her presence considering who and what she was.

"In my experience I believe the zerg will use a blitz tactic to quickly land their ground forces on the planet either in the major cities or rural locations that will be easier to attack and establish a hive cluster."

54 year old Timothy Veson General and head of the Reach UNSCDF ground defences cleared his throat. "Miss Aliasse with all do respect we take your advice seriously however do you think the Zerg will keep to the same tactics used in the last war?"

"Im simple stating the tactics which give the zerg the best chance of achieving their goal," Aliasse answered.

"But how can you know what their objectives are?" asked Captain Camron Laurencia.

"Well to put it simply the zerg are attacking to reduce our population and collect combat date from which they can evolve. And force humanity to evolve with them."

"That keeps in line with the records of what their empress said two hundred years ago," Admiral Maves said.

"Everyone I believe we're off topic so can we return to how we're going to deal with the next attack. The press will be reporting on the story in just 24 hours and even Earth will know that the Zerg are back." the lady president said getting everyone to refocus.

"Yes of course."Admiral Maves said." I suggest we recall all of our forces back to the inner system to bolster our defenses.

"That will leave the outer colonies vulnerable to attack!" yalled General Veson in shock.

"We must make the inner system the priority if we lose Reach and the warpgate we lose the system."

General Veson grumbled at the logic of the ONI spook. Just because he was right doesn't mean he has to like it.

"I agree with Admiral Maves." Aliasse spoke much to her and everyone's surprise. "It's unlikely that the Zerg will attack the outer colonies given their low populations and space station based habitat's."

President Cynthia hummed a bit as she thought. "If that is your recommendation we'll do it. However what are our plans for a defense."

The one high ranking member of the UNSC forces on Reach who has yet to speak now voiced his opinion. "Miss president I believe the best course of action is to split our fleet forces into two groups." said Louis Teodor. He was still uncomfortable with the new rank of Fleet Admiral of the Epsilon Eridani system, only being promoted to the rank just a few hour after the Zerg attack yesterday since the rank in only given in wartime. "One group focuses on attacking the incoming Zerg forces while the second protects Reach.

It was a good plan and one no one could find a fault in.

"Is that your full recommendation Fleet Admiral Theodor?" asked president Cynthia.

"Yes it is. However I purpose that Captain Cameron Laurencia be put in charge of the attack fleet while I will take command of the ground fleet." Teodor sugessted his words turning a few heads especially Captain Cameron's.

"And why dose he deserve such a duty?" Cynthia asked.

"Because even if it was just a single short battle Captain Laurencia has more experience battling Zerg forces then even me."

After a short review of Captain Cameron's military records and qualifications it was agreed that he would lead the first fleet which he humbly accepted.

 **Chapter End**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **Return of the Swarm part 4**

* * *

 **Planet Reach**

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **January 5th Wednesday**

A TV screen turned on showing a pair of news reporters with the words Reach, News, Network, abbreviated behind them.

"Good morning everyone." the female reporter greated . "Cathy Moores and Richard Samson here bringing you a special and alarming report today concerning something we all knew was coming."

"Quit right Cathy. We've received word from the UNSCDF and from a few eyewitness accounts that."Richard took a deep breath for dramatic effect. "On January second 12:45 PM Gamma station was attacked By Zerg forces."

"Humanity knew that this day was coming ever since the empress of the Zerg said after two hundred years the swarm would return," Cathy said reminding people of the events during the closing of the last war with the Zerg.

"True Cathy. Now the question is how is the Government and UNSC going to handle this?. To answer that question we have none other then Aliasse Irving the Observer of Reach here with us today.

The screen paned out showing Aliasse sitting in a chair beside Cathy and Richard's desk.

"Im happy to be here today miss Cathy mister Richard," greeted Aliasse.

"No its us whose honored to have someone so esteemed here with us." Richard said. " Anyone who's read a history book has heard of you and your part in the first Zerg war two hundred years ago."

"That's right your the only one alive today whose actually seen and fought against Zerg," said Cathy.

The information concerning Aliasse and her immortality has been common knowledge for a long time as the shock of her very existence has come and gone for a few hundred years now.

Aliasse blushed with a sighing at her own troublesome renown.

"Miss Aliasse tell us how do think the Zerg will attack next. I doubt the Zerg swarm would just attack one station and retreat?" Richard asked.

"Your right."Aliasse answered." The Zerg wouldn't attack once and leave that attack was meant to probe and test the defensive capabilities of Reach."

"So we can expect another attack soon?" Cathy asked.

"Yes and a much larger one. A few days ago I was in a conference with president Hargress and the heads of the UNSC, UNSCDF and ONI discussing the matter and we believe the Zerg forces will attempt to land ground forces in major city's or in rural areas with less defenses," explained Aliasse.

"I see and have the Government and military come up with a strategy to counter the Zerg attack?" Cathy asked.

"Yes. Recently promoted Fleet Admiral Louis Teodor has made a plan to counter the Zerg attack however i'm not ably to share any of that with you as there may be Zerg spies on Reach watching this broadcast or the Zerg could be waiting out there somewhere in the outer starsystem listening to the transmission.

Both news reporter's got shocked expression on their faces as they shared a glance with each other.

Do you mean to tell us that Zerg could be on Reach already?!" Cathy asked with a concerned expression.

"Yes I wouldn't put it past them considering their FTL warp jumping abilities," Aliasse explained.

"If they have that ability then why don't they just use this warp jumping ability to deploy their forces right on top of Reaches capital?" asked Richard.

"Remember that the zerg are attacking to force humanity to evolve so they would have a opponent to struggle against and evolve to match. Evolution is one of the Zergs main objectives. Their just using humanity as a tool for that purpose so I don't think that they would launch a all out attack to take the planet however I do think they would take anything they can get if given the chance," Aliasse explained.

"I see." Richard said. "Miss Aliasse how big of a attack force do you think the zerg will attack with next?"

"That's hard to say given the lack of information. No one has seen the zerg in two hundreds years so we know almost nothing about how they have evolved and changed in that time however given that the new type of zerg."

The back screen changed to show a body of a Wyvern in the hanger of Gamma station surrounded by UNCS scientist's personnel examining it.

"That attacked Gamma station is based on the Mutalisk it's safe to say that they have focused on adapting to space combat."

Both Cathy and Richard took a moment to examine the frozen picture.

"I thought that the zerg needed us to evolve so how can the zerg change in the two hundred years that they have been away," Richard asked.

Aliasse saw where the question was going.

"That's because there's a special type of zerg capable of altering the other zerg like a geneticist who can alter the zerg on a genetic level. Date taken from experiments, combat and the tactics of their enemies is used by these... _'evolution masters'_ to alter the other zerg to improve their combat abilities or in the case of this zerg on screen create new stronger types of Zerg from old types. This new zerg which attacked Gamma station is no doubt based off a Mutalisk but improved for space combat.

"Thank you miss Aliasse for that explanation and your time here." Richard said."Now let's move on to-"

* * *

 **New Alexandria City**

 **Public Apartment complex**

The news casters continued to talk on screen as Allan his twin brother James and Dannie sat at the kitchen table in their apartment listening.

"Dannie do you think the Zerg will attack here?" Allan asked with a concred expression.

"Maybe. But the military and Miss Aliasse seem to have everything under control," Dannie replied continuing to watch the tv.

"Hay Dannie you think miss Aliasse will fight the zerg?" James asked as he took another bit of his food.

"I don't know," Dannie replied shuddering on the inside from the memory of the few times Aliasse had him and the others fight her in training match's which _always_ ended with all six of them getting a few broken bones or at least some cuts and bruises.

"Hay Dannie when will we start that testing your dad told us about?" James asked.

"Yeah we want to get back home as fast as possible," Allan added.

Dannie took one final spoon full of his food and got up taking his empty plate to the sink a little fed up with the two boys pestering him. "I don't know he said he wanted to give us a few days to settle into the new apartment,"

Just then the front door bell ringed and the face of Dannie's father displayed on the door.

"Hello I hope im not intruding," Markus asked.

"Door open!," Dannie ordered, the front door on command unlocked and opened. "No your not intruding dad but why are you here I would have thought you would have sent one of your men over to pick us up?,"

Dannie had a genuine expression of shook at the fact his workaholic dad was here in person.

"Well it's not like the company will fall apart if im gone a little bit. Besides your are my work now and my son. Miss Aliasse also told me that people like you could be the future of the human race so..."

"And your drooling over the opportunity to research our powers," Dannie said in a tone of disregard for his fathers company.

"Hardly."Markus rebuked. "People with you abilities are simply too rare to do anything other then to perform research into the nature of your Psionics."

Dannie gave a sigh as the twins watched the father son argument. "Yeah well that may change miss Aliasse said that many more people could awaken to their abilities in the near future."

"Yes but still I think it will continue to be a rear ability few are born with. Also its time to start the first group of tests. It took longer then expected to prepare the test chamber."

"Fine lets go. Allan. James. Put your plates in the dishwasher, and get your coats on let's go."

The drive from the apartment complex to Horizon HQ was through half the city and the twins kept looking out the SUVs windows at the falling snow covering the massive sky-scrappers and city gardens with some of the lakes freezing over. Winter was a little longer on Reach then Earth so it would probably last another two months.

* * *

 **Horizon company Reach branch HQ**

 **Horizon tower**

 **Testing floor 25**

Dannie and the twins were given a few dozen subdermal medical sensors across their bodies along with a injection of medical scanning nanobots before being taken to a large clean white chamber that looked like it took up one whole floor of the building, they could only imagine what was tested in here before they arrived.

~Hello Dannie, Allan, James my name's Alice. Me and some of my partners will be overseeing your test. We'll begin with something simple,~ Alice said over the intercom.

Dannie felt the urge to just read the minds of the people watching him from the hidden room and learn what the test was but he thought better and it wouldn't be as interesting if he knew what was coming. Suddenly the floor split open and a maze like pattern of walls spread across the chamber separating the three boys.

"James!"

"Allan!"

The twins shouted to each other at the sudden seperation.

~Don't be nervous it's just a maze." Alice reassured. "The end goal of this test is to get to the end of the maze in 30 minutes without being caught by the guards. You'll get more points for the more of you who reach the end goal.~

"And let me guess the more points we get the more money we get paid," Dannie yealled.

~Yes that is correct.~

"Well lets get going! im good with mazes," James said remembering he was good at finding his way back to camp whenever he and Allan explored the forest on mount Menachite.

 **"Hold on you two don't go running off yet. Let me see something first,"** Dannie projected to the twins. He then expanded his perception of the area sensing the minds of the humans around him but other then the people in the control room a floor above them he didn't feel anything in the maze.

"Hmph clever." Dannie thought. "Hey lady the guards in the maze are robots aren't they," he yelled.

Yes and they function on their own so you can't read their minds. Or ours were only monitoring your vitals so reading our minds wouldn't get you a view of the maze and besides its randomly generated **,~** Alice explained.

So no cheating Dannie,~ Markus voice said over the intercom.

"Great my dads watching to!" Dannie thought as he got back to the task at hand.

Dannie switched to another of his powers sensory field, some thing Aliasse thought him. Dannies sense of touch expanded to the whole room feeling its curves, walls, floor and the humanoid robots waiting throughout its maze of walls. It wasn't the best as he was still developing the psionic sense abilities.

 **"James move forward and turn left then continue straight and stop,"** Dannie instructed.

"Ok" he said.

James followed the instructions stopping at a T intersection.

 **"Now Allan move ahead and to the right,"** Dannie projected.

Dannie continued to lead the two brothers through the maze while he moved with them off and on staying in one place to focus. Eventually they entered the areas patrolled by the guard-bots walking the halls of the maze in a repeating pattern but the pattern changed every five minutes making Dannies job even harder but after a few close calls as when James was spotted and chased by one of the robots but thanks to Dannie leading him a he manged to escape by jumping over a gap in the ground the robot couldn't get across. After that the speed of the bots increased, making Dannie struggle to coordinate the twins. But eventually the three of them got to the end and exited the maze even though they had a dozen of the bots chasing them by the end.

"Shut the door! shut the door!" Allan yelled as Dannie just grabbed the door slamming it shut in the face of the robots.

There was a buzzer sound and the maze lowered back into the floor with the robots all just standing around in the vast open room with the boys.

~Good work that's the end of this test let's move one to the next shall we.~

The boys sighed in part joy to be done with the test and part frustration at the next test thrown at them.

The room changed again this time into a obstacle course and the robots lined up in-front of the boys.

~The next test is to make the robots run the obstacle course three times in the next ten minutes,~ Alice said.

"James. Allan. This is your specialty but try not to explode the robots," Dannie said.

"All right im first," Allan said as he touched one of the robots carefully infusing it with psionic energy so it doesn't go boom. Allan felt the robot like it was another part of his body his level of control over object's he infused had greatly increased thanks to his time in Aliasse's training camp.

The robots body jerked as it was puppetered and then marched along the obstacle course climbing over walls under blocks and across elevated walkways moving slowly and with deliberate moments. Allan watched the whole time imagining that it was him moving. It only took seven minutes to run the whole course.

~Good. On to the next test,~ Alice said in a cherry tone as the room changed again twelve towers rose up all over the room with a double layered wall erected around the boys.

~This one is simple just blow up the towers,~ Alice said.

"Ok my turn," James said enthusiastically.

He ran around the room placing his hand on the base of the towers for a few moments one after the other as he ran around the room eventually looping back to Dannie and Allan waiting at the far side. James then gave a smile as he held his hand up and snapped his fingers. Simultaneously all the towers exploded scattering dabries all over the room.

In the observation room Markus and the other scientist reading through the date were all glad they made the walls double thickness.

"Glad we only made them out of graphene," said Markus as Alice shook her head up and down in silent agreement.

Behind them stood a lone woman with dark blue hair her eyes a deep green with tiny a psionic glow of purple mixed in.

"Well it seems Aliasse is a good teacher," commented Ellen.

Ellen despite being away for two hundred years has maintained a controlling hold on horizon company and through them she's keeped a eye on humanity and their progress.

"Markus it's quit the surprise for your own son to be born with psionic abilities," Ellen stated with curiosity.

The CEO turned around taking a few steps to his unofficle boss with a look of concern on his face. "Uh yes it's quite the surprise."

Ellen tilted her head at him. **"Oh don't worry I don't have any plans for your son or any of the others kids. I'm just a observer here like I told Aliasse. What happens next is up to the UNSC forces and the two brood queens leading the Zerg forces. Although I can say that they will only target one city and not build a hive cluster. I gave them strict order's"** Ellen projected keeping her words silent from the scientists in the room.

Markus gave a relieved sigh at those words. Still the fact he had a zerg worm in his brain like all other Horizon company CEOs before him was still a little annoying. The parasite was a new type that could be transferred from one person to another and for the last 188 years it had been in the heads of many previous CEOs keeping a direct line to Ellen who liked keeping an eye on the Horizon company and it activities.

"Anyway i've seen enough i'm leaving. I have a... meeting to get to," Ellen said as she left the room.

"Oh is your guest leaving sir?" Alice asked.

Markus stood straighter turning around trying to acted calm. "Yes i'm afraid she has some business to attend to. How's the date looking?."

"Well it will still take some time for us to make sense of it all but it seems curtain parts of their brain are activated when they use their powers. Their bodies also seem to react at these times as well."

"I see do you thing you can make any headway with the date."

"Yes but like I said it will take time. We can end the tests right now if you wise they seem a little exhausted."

"We'll let them decide."

The woman turned around and hit the intercom.

"Dannie, James, Allan if you feel tiered we can take a brake," asked Alice.

~No were good,~Dannie's voice replied from the speaker.

* * *

 **Menachite Mountain**

The orbital taxi descended through the sky landing at the Amberson titanium mines parking lot its two passengers paying and leaving as the pilot waited for them to return after their business in concluded.

Ellen and Aliasse made their way to the mines main office and had a quick talk to the foremen and with a quick exchange of money he gladly allowed the two women to enter the mine with two guides. After three separate and long elevator rides down into the depth's of the mine they finally reached the lowest level. Then the four of them rode a small mine transport vehicle to a isolated corner of the tunnel network excavated through out the mountain stopping at a dead-end of an incomplete tunnel.

"Well this is it. End of the road ladys," one of the men escorting them said.

"Thank you for the ride gentile men but you can go now but be back here in two hours to pick us up again will you," Aliasse said in a alluring voice as she handed both men a few solid gold coins each."And do please and keep this a secret please."

"Uh yeah anything you want miss. We'll be back in about two hour then and we'll keep our mouths shut right Samual," the one man said as his partner ogled the gold coin in his hand.

"Huh oh right yeah."

The two men pocketed the coins and left in the vehicle leaving Ellen and Aliasse by the wall of dirt and stone.

"What?" Aliasse asked as she noticed Ellen staring at her.

"Oh It's just that you seem more mature and grown up. Tell me are you still a virgin," Ellen asked with a devious look on her face.

"Ug what!" Aliasse replied embarrassed at the question.

"Don't tell me you _'are'_ still a virgin!?"

"Ugh no i'm not. I've dated a few guys."

"Then who was it that popped your cherry?" Ellen asked again as Aliasse,s face turned a flustered shade of red.

"That's none of your business. And what about you did you *uck a Hydralisk," Aliasse said crossing her arms with a red embarrassed look on her face as Ellen burst into laughing.

"Ha ha ha ahh your to easy Aliasse it's just a joke lighten up will ya."

Aliasse was not amused and her expression turned to one of annoyence

"Anyway... let's get to business finding that psionic source under the mountain," Ellen said as she touched a button on the black and gold collar around her neck. Suddenly like a great wight crashing down on her Aliasse felt the full pressure of Ellen's psionic presence like a heavy rain pouring down on her.

"Eh... Well... I see that your just as powerful as before."

Ellen grinned as she lifted her hands up above her head charging up a massive sphere of energy the size of a small building then condensing it into a smaller orb and moving it in front of herself. Ellen then shot an intense twisting blue silver beam that cut its way through the rock wall. Everything shook for the full minute while the beam sustained itself before weakening, thinning and then stopping revealing a giant hole bored into the stone wall and continuing deep into the darkness beyond.

"Well after you," Ellen said as Aliasse took out a flashlight illuminating the darkness.

Both of them walked through the hole perfectly cut through the stone leaving a almost completely smooth surface. Aliasse marveled at the level of control Ellen had over her aura shooting it out like that while controlling its output to prevent a cave in.

After 10 minutes of walking the two Valkyrur,s reached the approximate center of the mountain and were nearly right on top of the source of the psionic energy.

"Your turn," Ellen said as she stepped back.

Aliasse handed Ellen the light and repeated the beam attack that Ellen had used but aimed straight down. Aliasse realized her energy output was a little to low as her progress cutting through the dirt and rocks was slower than Ellen's, show she increased the output of her beam increasing the pace of the progress until she felt the beam punch through something at the end.

Dropping through the deep hole both Valkyrur,s enveloped themselves in a aura sphere as they fell eventually landing without even as much as a scuff on their boots.

The tunnel they landed in was artificial with stone walls covered in odd glyph,s and other odd symbols. Aliasse ran her hand along the wall as they walked through the tunnel the symbols twisted into a spiral mosaic and vanising into ever-smaller spiral curls. The symbols were part of the rock, composed of glittering mica inclusions in the granite matrix. The symbols consisted of squares, triangles, bars and dots that looked like some kind of alien language maybe forerunner-Xel'naga?.

Ellen and Aliasse followed the psionic energy signature through a cave network, forming roller skates with their Aura to quickly make their way through the cave network otherwise they would have been walking for days.

Eventually they reached another stone wall or maybe a door covered in a spiral pattern of the same symbols. They started glowed as if in response to the two Valkyrur,s presence and a glowing white triangle appeared in the center of the wall.

As if drawn to it Ellen took a step forward and touched it and radial warm glowing white lines raced from it to the other symbols in a spiral of soft light and the wall before them split and parted into a tall hallway beyond that sloped down deeper into the heart of the mountain.

The floor was decorated with asymmetric blue tile's that looked like waves lapping upon a shore. Large symbols glowing softly of golden color were inlayed into the walls.

Ellen and Aliasse continued down the hallway going ever deeper as the environment changed into a series of holographic landscapes, a starry sky covered the ceiling with cratered moons. Along the walls bamboo like grass sprouted up the curved walls. The holographic environment cycled to a white blank moonscape contrasting the jet black sky then changing to a to a blasted volcanic landscape of fire and lava spewing mountains and even the wavering of the air from the nonexistent heat was perfectly copied by the holographics as the golden symbols remained along with each landscape leading them to their destination.

The corridor emptied into a massive domed room easily a few kilometers in diameter and covered in a blue sky complet with a shining sun and white puffy clouds that unnaturally shifted into pyramids, squares, spheres, and bars and cubs. They stood on the top floor of a dozen tiered levels that encircled the room with no railing. The floor was blue with billions of tiny tiles shifting and changing as though it was alive, Ellen was reminded of the way Creep tended to shift and move in the same way only colored a dark purple gray. Aliasse leaned over the edge seeing that it was a straight one hundred meter drop to the next lower level.

Ellen crouched activating her Null G power and jumped sending her selfe flying through the air into the chamber as thought gravity didn't apply to her. With a thud she landed softly on the lowest of the tiered levels. Aliasse harrumphed a little envious of Ellen,s ease of movement. Ellen stared at the faint flickering light and source of the psionic signature at the center of the chamber as though it was pulling her. As She continued to stare at the center of the room the ground shook nearly knocking Ellen down a pair of giant feet landed a distance from her. The giant blue form of Aliasse avatar form kneeled down putting a hand to its chest as Aliasse her self exited it and the giant hand of her aura lowered her to the floor and shifted to a incorporeal state and was reabsorbed by its master.

"Whats that?" Aliasse asked noticing a smile on Ellen's face.

"Something very interesting," Ellen said as she walked off followed by Aliasse.

They walked for what seemed minutes yet it didn't seem as though they were getting any closer to the center of the room but instead it seemed like they were getting farther away. Ellen stopped and looked behind her spotting Aliasse a dozen meters away to her right.

"Aliasse over here," Ellen called.

Aliasse looking a little confused quickly made her way back over to Ellen.

"Whats up with this room? I feel like I have vertigo, is it the psionic energy from the center of chamber?" Aliasse asked scratching her head.

"Lets hold hands for now so we don't get separated again."

Aliasse shrugged with a sigh but did as Ellen suggested Aliasse wanted out of here as fast as possible she felt like she was standing on the ceiling upside down but not.

Ellen closed her eyes focusing her senses and picked a direction, she and Aliasse turned around apparently back the way they had come. A few minutes later they arrived at the pedestal in the center of the room, atop it was a white fist sized crystal slowly spinning in mid air as its facets shifted and changed.

"Pretty... what is it?," Aliasse asked crossing her arms a little fed up with this field trip but at the same time now interested in the crystal floating before them and the structure that housed it.

"Aliasse I," Ellen said reaching out to grasp the crystal but stopping and pulling her arm to her chest. "I think this crystal is meant to be found at a later date by another group of people."

Aliasse glared at Ellen now knowing something was off. "Ellen what's up with you?"

Ellen sighed turning back to Aliasse. "Well... do you know about Parallel and alternate dimensions " she asked.

Aliasse raised a eyebrow "Yes?"

"Well... I think our universe is a... combination of different realities that are based on video games."

...

...

...

"What?!" Aliasse replied with a confused expression on her face.

Ellen explained as much of her theory as possible which is based on the fact that the planet Reach was originally from the Xbox game Halo and the existence of this room and the crystal is from a Halo novel First strike, and then there's the Zerg and Protoss from Starcraft.

Aliasse stood their just taking in Ellen's crazy explanations and theories on how it was all possible.

"Ok let me get this right. You think some... god like... interdimensional being created our reality by copying or joining realites from fictions together like some frankenstein universe?" Aliasse said trying to keep a straight face.

"Yes... it would explain how the Zerg and Protoss exist despite also having a game with them in it a."

"Or maybe latent human psionic potential in the twenty first century allowed them to predict the existence of aliens and they put them in games and other media," Aliasse said with a big huffing sigh. "Actually now that I think about it that seems even less believably."

"You just don't want the Xenomorphs from aliens to be real," Ellen said with amused look on her face.

"Yes." Aliasse confessed as Ellen placed her hand on Aliasse's shoulder.

"Don't worry if they do exist out there i'll have my swarm eat them."

"Thanks. Now what are we going to do about this crystal," Aliasse said as she and Ellen turned their eyes back to it.

"Like I said there's another group of people that will find it sometime later. I already have a good idea of who," Ellen explained as she planned for the future.

After that Ellen and Aliasse left the chamber closing the door they opened along the way and collapsing the tunnels they made erasing all evidence that they were there.

* * *

 **Aldiss city**

 **Bradson high school**

Kaelea sighed as she entered her high school building in the early morning. She had fun learning how to control her powers with miss Aliasse still she had her and the others do their school work so they didn't fall to far behind.

Kaelea entered her class room quickly noticing all the other students giving her a glance. She felt something like a celebrity after that incident that began this whole affair for her.

Afterword Aliasse had given them all a talking to although Kaelea hadn't a clue what they were told but everyone who saw her use her powers for the first time now always kept their distance and would gave her a look when ever they saw her.

"Hey Kaelea."

"Morning Tristen," she replied to said friend she had smacked months before.

Their relationship had been strained after that incident more about why Kaelea couldn't say anything about her having supernatural powers then anything.

Class started a few minutes later and the normal routine of school continued as it had since Kaelea came back from her time at the camp on Menachite mountain. Math, Algebra, History, Club activities, Gym and Exercises followed until Lunch in the dining hall. It was at this point Tristen decided to talk about what had happened.

"Hey Kaelea do you got a minute?" Tristen asked as he sat down next to Kaelea in a lonely corner of the mess hall.

"Uh high... Sorry... about your nose."

"Hey that was a long time ago you don't have to keep apologising," replied Tristen as he bit into his food.

"Yeah... anyway why haven't you asked about where I've been for the past few months, I know your curious," Kaelea said taking a bit out of a apple.

"Yeah i'm curious but that Darcsen chick and some scary guys in suits came to my house and told me to quote un quote forget everything I saw."

"Heh miss Aliasse,s scarier than those guys in suits," Kaelea mumbled under her breath as she chewed and swallowed.

"Huh, you say something?"

"Oh nothing. Anyway about you question I-"

Kaelea was interrupted by another student as she shouted to her friends to come look at the news on her NX Ipad 41000.

"Huh I can't believe this its so huge, everyone come look at this."

"Dame its as big as a few city blocks."

"No its even bigger then that, wait whats that coming out from its sides!"

"Those Mutalisk."

"No. My big brother works on Gamma station and he said it's a new type of Zerg based on the Mutalisk he said it's wicked fast.

"And there are tons of them."

The gathered students all murmured amongst themselves as they watched the screen.

"Whats going on?!" asked a teacher as he got up from his seat at a nearby table.

"It's the Zerg their on the news, their approaching Reach."

"Oh shit that's not good," Tristen said as he started biting his thumb nails in a nervous habit.

Kaelea got her phone out and called Kevin. Before they all left the camp they had all exchanged their phone numbers.

~Hello?,~ Kevin greated.

"Its me have you heard the news about the Zerg?," Kaelea asked.

"Huh Kaelea?. No im in the middle of class."

"Well their coming in force this time by what the news is saying. I'll call Dannie and the twins up so just keep yourself safe you hear."

~Yeah you too... by.~

"By." -click

* * *

 **Reach Capital, Esztergom**

 **Office of the president**

Cynthia Hargress looked at the image of the Zerg Leviathan on her window screen as it and a swarm of Wyverns approached Reach. They were still 15 light minutes from Reach but they have been traveling towards the planet for some time since their light reflection had reached the planet.

The live image of Fleet Admiral Louis Teodor appeared beside the still image.

"Well the news broke sooner than expected. It seems the massive Zerg approaching us doesn't mind being spotted," Cynthia said.

"Ma'am we'll deal with it before it gets to Reach," said Fleet Admiral Louis Teodor.

"I hope so but given its size I don't think that will be easy."

"I don't expect it to be, we are dealing with the Zerg," Teodor said as his image blinked off.

* * *

 **Reach high orbit**

 **Combind Epsilon Eridani system fleet**

 **Epoch class heavy carrier, Guardians shield**

The image of the president winked off as Theodor sat back in his command chair.

"Sir we've completed the fleet wide systems check all ships are ready for combat," said Major Hal sitting at the navigators seat.

"Good tell Captain Laurencia to move his half of the fleet out."

"Roger," the major replied sending the message.

On the bridge of the Flagship of the first fleet The Valkyrur,s spear a new Valkof class battlecruiser sat Captain Camron in his new ship captains uniform, he felt a little uncomfortable on a ship but as the saying goes the best defense is a good offense.

The ship had just arrived from the sol system through the warpgate a day ago and was given to him by fleet Admiral Teodor to serve as the tip of the spear for the defense of reach.

The ship had a hammer head shaped front head, a blocky shaped shaped main body with two wings and a armored neck that connected the head and body.

Front Bow. 8 twin linked medium type 200mm rail guns turrets. 4 twin linked laser cannon turrets.

Starboard and Port Wings. Twin linked wing tip mounted Mac cannons. Wings top and bottom 6x50 shot Archer missile pods.

Main hull. 2 sets of 4 twin linked laser turrets and 4 sets of 2 twin linked rail guns.

Underside of Neck and main hull. 4 secondary hangers and 2 main hangers.

The Valkyrur,s spear is also equipped a special main gun mounted in the center of ships hull extending from the rear of the main hull to the tip of the bow. The massive refined Ragnite/Khaydarin crystal cannon was based on the same class off weapon used by the Marmota class ship during the first Zerg war.

"Sir we've been ordered by the fleet admiral to move out," reported Major Andy Rin.

"Ok lets move out then the faster we intercept that zerg the better," he ordered.

The fusion engines of the Valkyrur,s spear flared to life as it and its fleet of two dozen Stalwart class frigates, Halberd class destroyers and Mako class corvette's moved with purpose and a target through the blackness of space. The attack fleet accelerated as the crews of the fleet readyed themselves and their ships for the coming battle counting ammo, checking main life support and subsystems, sensors and weapons systems.

Fleet admiral Teodor watched from his command chair as half the fleet left Reach, making a silent prayer for their success.

In the Valkyrur,s spears fighter deck located in the ships neck the deck crews worked reading the longswords, Broadsword's and Saber bombers loading them up with ammo, missiles and making systems checks. In the ships cafeteria Red squadron talked amongst themselves and the other pilots as they remained on standby for any call for launch that could come at any moment. In the bridge Captain Laurencia keeped his eyes on the image of his target continuously updated by a long range comm and surveillance satellite that normally provides a link with the outer colonies in the Epsilon Eridani system.

"Sir we've received another update from the probe," Said bridge officer Major Andy.

"Good bring it up," captian Camron said.

There was a beep and the video changed again showing the massive Zerg beast and its swarm of Wyverns but now as a dot surrounded by a swarm of smaller ones that slowly got bigger and bigger until they passed the probe. The camera on the probe rotated following the Zerg as it passed by and became smaller and smaller. The image froze and a crewmen whistled as the readout of the creature came on screen.

It measured 5.7 mile long and was now less than ten light minutes from Reach.

"Calypso can you analyse the structure of the creature and find a weak point?" Captain Camron asked the fragment of the AI.

It had always been something of a hotly debated topic in the UNSC navy to put super intelligent AIs onboard a warship but in the current situation the advantages outweighed the risks and after Fleet admiral Teodor and President Cynthia talked it over they allowed a fragment of Calypso to be transplanted onto the Valkyrur,s spear.

"From my analysis it looks like it is heavily armored and armed although I can only speculate as to its armements however from what I can tell and based on date on Zerg Behemoths it looks like its a super heavy transport carrier," the AI answered.

"So it could have a army of zerg inside it ready to land on Reach than," Captain Laurencia stated.

"Yes however given the fact it's by itself it could also have heavy space combat and orbital bombardment weapons. Although this is unlikely it is a possibility and for all we know there could be a fleet of them and Behemoths waiting somewhere to jump right on top of us as soon as we engage this one."

"Bait for an ambush."Cameron thought. "Still we need to keep this one from getting to Reach. Tell me about the main gun do you think it will work on that thing."

"The Valkof cannon has a long charge time of a 5.2 minutes but given its test firing date it would at least put a crack or two in that Zergs thick shell. And would be able to hit well out of the Zergs range," Calypso explained.

Captain Camron felt his chin thinking formulating a plan given his resources, he then flipped a screen attached to his chairs arm rest around in front of him and drew up a new formation for his fleet. "Major Rin tell the fleet to maneuver into this formation," the captain said sending the image of his formation to the Major.

"Aye sir," Major Rin replied as he relayed the information throughout the fleet and sent a report of the event back to Reach to keep them informed on the first fleets movements and tactics.

The first fleet ships shifted their positions around into three concentric vertical circles with a few kilometers of space between each ship, the Mako Corvettes were in the outermost circle with the Stalwart class frigates in the middle circle and the Halberd Destroyers in the inner circle surrounding the Valkyrur,s spear in the middle but the rings of ships were not overlapping but staggered with the Valkyrur,s spear in the rearmost position the ring of Halberds in front of it and the ring of Stalwarts in the forward most position with the ring of Mako's between the Halberds and Stalwarts.

The formation made the best use of all the ships as the Halberd destroyers were best at sending lots of fire at long range and had good point defense. The Stalwart Frigates were armed with more missiles and were bigger but slower firing their Mac cannons and the Makos while lacking any large Mac cannons were superior point defense ships against fighters anything around that size range.

The rings of ships and their positioning allowed all of the ships to be able to bring all of their weapons to bare defensively against any zerg flyers or offensively against the large creature.

After twenty minutes all the ships were in position and ready Camron just hoped that his plan would work.

* * *

 **Zerg Leviathan**

 **Nerve center**

Navash and Niadra watched as the fleet of human ships approached them in their concentric ring formation.

"I wonder why they formed into that grouping?" asked Niadra.

"Perhaps to increase the effectiveness of their defensive and offensive weapons," said Navash. "We should send a attack wave to test them but we should not engage directly. The Leviathan will warp to the Planet Reach once the humans are distracted."

"Very well sister," Niadra replied sending a signal to the Leviathan to release the few Behemoths from their hangers in side the massive beast.

"Leviathan must survive or relivente date will be lost," spoke a Evolution master entering the Nerve center.

"Yes I,m aware. I,m not suicidal," Navash replied remembering that a few dozen of them were on board to observe the battles.

* * *

 **Valkyrur,s spear bridge**

After a few minutes of waiting four large contacts appeared on the long ranged scans.

"Four zerg contacts at extreme range. Scan indicates... Behemoth class" yelled bridge officer Marlen Ashten.

"Where did they come from. Calypso?,"Captain camron asked the AI.

"Captain they may have been inside the larger zerg creature and launched after they detected us."

"Major Andy tell the fleet to deploy their longswords and Broadswords and have the Sabers loaded up with antiship torpedos," ordered captain Camron. "And have the fleet open fire on those Behemoths when they get into effective weapons range!"

The orders went out to the first fleet sending pilots across all the ships scrambling to their fighters, Red squadron along with their fellow pilots launched from the different ships along with the unmanned Wombat drones fighters all of them forming into dozens of flying V formations accelerating ahead of the fleet but a few miles away so as not to be in their line of fire.

"This is Calypso to all pilots we got four Zerg Behemoths incoming. The fleet will hit them from long range then the Sabers have their try. All longswords and Broadswords are to protect them as they make their attack run."

"Roger Valkyrurs spear," said Flyboy."All righ everyone you heard the lady nothing touches those Sabers got it."

~Yes sir,~ Bull replied.

~Roger,~ Shadow replied.

~Got it,~ Hashbrown replied.

The formations of Longswords , Broadswords, Wombats and Sabers flew to the right before leveling out getting out of the way of their own fleets attack.

Throughout the first fleet Archer missiles by the hundreds launched curving forwards as the Mac cannons charged up and fired the tips of the ships flared a bright blue silver for a fraction of a second like lightning in space silently sending dozens of car sized Tungsten shell's screaming through the empty void at 30,000 meters per second.

As they detected the incoming attack the four Behemoths instinctively deployed a defense screen of the new Zerg defensive breed named Starfish. The new zerg breed flew out of the Behemoths by the hundreds their saucer shaped main body tilting this way and that as their five tendrils undulated propelling them a few dozen kilometers in front of the Behemoths forming into three overlapping groups.

Their bodies flattened out exuding creep into a large shield plate that hardened into armor and was then reinforced by psionic energy transmitted to them from the Behemoths giving them psionic armor. Mere moments later the first Mac shells struck vaporising dozens of Starfish in the first and second layers but the third layer held as the surviving Starfish in the first and second layers closed their formations covering the gaps that were opened up.

Minutes later the Archer missiles struck the first layer of Starfish but only a few got through to the second layer. Then the Behemoths counterattacked with a swarm of Scourges each Behemoth launched dozens of the living missiles toward the human forces.

* * *

 **Red squadron**

 **Two minutes later**

"Lot of new contacts on the sensor's. Confirmed profiles of Scourges" Bull warned.

"Crap!."Flyboy cursed." Everyone pull your asses together and take out those things before they get to the Sabers."

All of the Longswords and Broadswords changed into attack formation as the Wombat drones accelerated to engage the Scourges first. The Wombat drones formed into a three layered V formation as they launched their missiles at the incoming Scourges popping the living missiles by the dozens until the two forces met. The swarm of Scourges tore through the drone fighters like wet paper as they continued their relentless attack but both sides of disposable units took damage.

The human pilots opened fire on the Scourges with everything they had as they evaded better than the drones. The two forces weaved through each other like two swarms of angry bees each having members of their group collide with the other but none caring or stopping to turn around as they each passed through to their own destinations.

~Hay Hashbrown you still with us,~ Called Bull.

"Yeah." Heavy breathing. "Somehow... got clipped by one of those things and took out one of my RCS thruster on my left wing."

~Hashbrown keep to the rear and defend the Sabers with Shadow and the others,~ ordered Flyboy.

"Sigh. "Roger," Hashbrown replied as he and Shadow decelerated to take up guarding of the Sabers with the others squadrons filling that roll.

"Bullet whats the damage?," Bull transmitted to the leader of the broadsword attack force.

"Well its not great we lost four of our Longswords and five Broadswords, luckley we didn't lose any of the Sabers," replied Lieutenant Commander Henry matterson call sign Bullet.

"We should be fine with the forces we got." Flyboy said with a sigh as he said a silent prayer for the loss of some good pilots.

Red squadron and the rest of their forces continued their attack run on the Behemoth's quickly closing the distance and flanking the Behemoths from the sides.

~Contact we got Wyverns,~ someone callout.

~All squadrons clear the way for the Sabers,~ ordered Bullet.

All the surviving Longsword and Broadswords Fighters accelerated towards the incoming threats launching missiles and firing their guns. The melee space battle was and intense one as the UNSC and Zerg forces engaged flying in all direction as every individual picked their own targets and attacked.

Broadsword fighters launched their swarmer micro-missiles as the Longswords ripped through the zerg with their ventral mounted rail guns. Wyverns fired their micro-glaives and shot their spines, each side maneuvering to get a advantedge over the other but the pitched fight between the fighters was a good distraction for the Sabers and their escorts.

"I hope they get out of that alive," Hashbrown mused as him the the Sabers and their other Longsword escorts all banked hard right at the Behemoths now only twenty kilometers away. The Sabers took point ahead of their Longsword guards and took a moment to target the Behemoths with their targeting systems and with silent motions each Saber let loose four AS/Yaeger anti-ship missiles.

All 32 missiles flew through the gap between them and their targets quickly reaching their maximum velocity and striking the four behemoths in a hypervelocity barrage of Neosteel and plasma explosion that vaporized small patches of the Behemoths psi-armor carapace but otherwise doing little damage.

"Shit Their tough bastards" yelled the Saber flights leader Marcus Anders callsign Hound. "Ok time to use the Shivas Make sure to remove the safety's before you launch."

With the orders given the co-pilots of the Sabers quickly typed in the safety disengaging code to arm the type1 Shiva-class fusion Missiles that hung underneath each Saber bomber.

The missiles launched and the Sabers with their Longsword guards turned around flying back towards their home fleet to avoid the small star bursts that were to erupt.

The Missiles flew true and impacted the Behemoths creating for but a few seconds a quartet of small suns that burned through the black of night.

* * *

 **Valkyrur,s spear bridge**

Captain Laurencia watched intently as the unfolding battle continued along with the battle of his own as the Scourges Kamikazed themselves into his fleet as their point defense shot dozens of them down before they even got within a hundred kilometers. It took a few hours but Calypso was able to write a new targeting program for all the ships point defense targeting systems increasing their hit rate against the swift Zerg.

However the Zerg were ever adapting and changed their flying patterns adapted their evasive maneuvers to avoid even the humans defensive fire even if only by a few meters. A few ships were hit by the Scourges damaging a few main and subsystems but nothing a few hours in drydock couldn't fix however the real damage was the venting of air and a few crew members that caused moral to drop it was nearly impossible to find a human corpse in the void of space let alone in the middle of a battle.

"Calypso what's the statues of the attack force?" Captain Laurencia asked with a concerned expression as he watched the date screens showing the battle.

"Their returning from their attack run. But by the time they arrive we will be in knife fight range of the Behemoths," The AI answered.

The Captain sat up strater in his chair giving a telling sigh as he knew that they'll be at a disadvantage if they let the Behemoths get in that close along with the Wyverns and Scourges.

"We'll have the fleet make one more full attack on them and then when were closer we'll split the fleet up into three faster attack groups. One with the Valkyrur's spear and another two flanking to our sides keeping the other Behemoths off us as we charge the Valkof."

"Roger sir," said Major Rin as he relayed the orders to the other ship captains.

"Using the Main weapon?. It's still just a prototype" Calypso said.

"I know but since the our conventional weapons seem to have failed to land a killing blow on those things it's time to use the one psionic weapon we got."

The Valkof was unconventional considering it was made of highly purified Ragnite and built into a spiral lance shape that ran the langth of of the ship. It was a larger scale version of the weapon used in the first Zerg war only enhanced with a focusing system at the tip that allowed the psionic attack to be far more concentrated and amplified giving the attack more than a few light seconds of range.

"It will take five point two minutes to fully charge and fire and we have four targets."

"I've thought of that fact however I think keeping the Zerg forces focused on us will be smarter," the Captain explained.

"I know I'm not military minded or trained in Tactics so I'll trust that you know what your doing Captain," The AI said as she ran through hundreds of thousands of possible outcome's.

"Sir the Fleet is changing into their assigned formations," Andy reported.

"Captain the Behemoths have fired. Their attacks are slower than our Mac rounds but not my much," reported Marlen.

"All ships evasive maneuvers!" Camron yealled,

The UNSC ships fired their RCS thrusters just in the nick of time as the psi-charged spines streaked through the fleet most missing or gust glancing the human ships but two were not so fast or lucky as the spine's ripped through their layered Titanium-A and Neo-steel battle plate like it was tissue paper causing major damage on multiply decks and crippling one ship.

Both ships safety systems kicked in and bulkheads slammed down cutting off damaged sections of the ships from other parts saving many crew but also condemning many others to death in the air less vacuum that slowly sucked out all the air. If some crew members were lucky they would reach some of the emergency shelters scattered about the ships for such a emergency.

"Sir the Argus and the Valiant have been hit."Marlen reported. "Their reporting explosive decompressions on multiple decks and the Argus has lost power to her engines shes drifting."

Captain Laurencia cursed under his breath.

"Have the closest ships to them send over rescue teams and have them tugged back to Reach," Captain Laurencia ordered

Tugging is the term used when placing of carbon nanofilament cables onto the damaged ship so they can be pulled to safety. This is done by Pelican dropships and is used to pull damaged ships out of close proximity of other ships, space stations or docks. The first time it was done was about fifty seven years ago when a old cargo ship suffered a failure in its fusion engines resulting in it drifting towards a space station. Two UNSC ships nearby had their Pelican dropships attach nanofilament cables onto the drifting ship and hulled it to safety before it hit anything.

Crews on both the Argus and Valiant tried to save their ships but to no avail it was all they could do to save their fellow crew mates from the vacuum and plasma leaking from power conduits and power subsystems.

Dozens of Pelican rescue craft reached the crippled ships some attaching nanofilament cables and a good few minutes later hundreds of crew from the Argus and Valiant were transferred even as the fleet accelerated towards the incoming Behemoths.

"Fire!" Cameron ordered as his remaining ships now in three groups let lose another barrage of Archer missiles and Mac rounds once again reducing the number of Starfish shields but not all of them.

"Those shields are annoying. "yelled major Rin.

"Mac cannon's recharged in two minutes. Valkof charged in one minute twenty seconds," reported Marlen as the ship shook from dozens of Scourge impacts. Outside the fleets point defense systems filled space with hundreds of blazing twin-linked laser pulse beams burning through Scourges by the scores as quad-linked phalanx rail guns peppered space with uncountable numbers of simi-guided explosive shells and shrapnel taring through hundreds of Wyverns as they entered the fleets overlapping kill zones.

The minutes ticked by as each of them felt like a hundred years as the life or death battle continued.

"Valkof charged," Marlen yelled as the ship to the Valkyrur,s spear port side exploded from a direct hit to it fusion containment shield and filled the screens on the left side of the bridge with a short lived flare of light and fragmenting ship dabries.

"The Atlas has been sunk," Major Andy reported as the intense battle continued.

"The fleets mac cannons are charged," Calypso said her normally stoic voice now had a hint of urgency.

Captain Laurencia glanced at his control screen double checking the fleets weapons and statues the number of his ships slowly decreasing as well as the lives lost to this battle which is just a prelude to the real battle with that larger zerg beast. All of it urging Cameron to end this battle as soon as possible as the memories of his family flashed through his mind is wife Eeris and daughter Fabricia. With a resolved look he glared at the forward screen showing the rapidly approaching Behemoths each showing a distinct group of scouched craters in their chitin armor.

"All ships aiming pattern sigma! fire," Cameron ordered, Aiming pattern sigma meaning that all the ships are to split into firing groups and focus on two targets at a time.

All of the first fleets ships made minute changes to their trejectroy's aiming their ventral Mac cannons at the two Behemoths on the left even as they closed the distance. All at once the fleet fired a weathering barrage at the two Behemoths, Mac shells slammed into the defending Starfish formations vaporising dozens of them all at once and cutting through all three layers of defense, a few mac shells even striking the Behemoths themselves blasting bloody holes into the living ships cracking their armor and making them spasm in pain from the mac shells boring through them at such speed. A short time later the second barrage of Archer missiles slammed against the remaining defenses of the two targeted Behemoths reducing the Starfish's numbers even more but for every Starfish that fell it took over a dozen Archer missile to destroy it.

"Targets defenses have been broken but no kills," Rin reported.

"Calypso target the one on the far left with the Valkof. I don't want to miss," the Captain ordered in a more confident voice showing that he's gotten more comfortable as a ship's captain.

The AI fragment ran through the many calculations needed to hit a target going at that velocity accounting for the movement, speed, angle, of both ships and all the other factors that would influence the aim and then double checking it and all of that in the span of 421 milliseconds or 0.415ths of a second.

Calypso then sent the opening signal to the Valkof,s barrel the armored covering in the middle of the ships hammerhead shaped bow lifted open revealing the spiral tip of a Ragnite/Khaydarin crystal lance. The spiral tip and the surrounding half sphere cavity around it glowed with and intense blue light that only grew brighter as the final firing checks were completed. Calypso took another two full seconds to triple and quadruple check her calculations before firing.

"All hands brace," the AI warned the ships crew over the intercoms just before she fired the RCS thrusters rising the ship up a few hundred meters and twisting to the left a little dodging yet another barrage of those lethal spines that seemed to be able to cut right through their ships armor, this only made Calypso irked even more as she had to redo all her previous targeting calculations over again.

"Calypso are you ready to fire?!" Cameron yelled as he saw yet another of his ships get hit luckley it was just a glancing strike leaving a small gash on the aft engines.

"Yes!"

"Then fire,!"

Moving at the speed of light a spiral Azure beam connected the Valkyrur,s spear to the Behemoth as the psionic focused energy of the Valkof negating the psi-armor reinforcing effect burning a hole straight through and blasting a out the other end.

The Behemoth spasmed violently before ending it movement and drifted lifelessly along its course as it spun clockwise dew to the angle of the hit. The remaining starfish of that Behemoth and any Wyverns abandoned it for another Behemoth now that their master was dead. The three remaining Behemoths broke away turning at such a hard angle that it would have torn a UNSC ship in half from the stress as they evaded the approaching UNSC ships. Captain Cameron gave a relived sigh as he sat back into his chair as he watched the dead Behemoth drift lifelessly.

"The remaining three Behemoths are retreating," Marlen reported more High-spirited.

"Have the fleet pursue and keep the pressure on them while we hang back and recharge the Valkof," Cameron ordered.

"Sir were getting a urgent call from Fleet Admiral Teodor," Major Marlen reported.

"Put him through."

The forward screen split in two one showing the Fleet admiral.

"Captain Laurencia report," the Fleet Admiral asked with a stern face indicating that something was not right.

"Fleet admiral we've just used the Valkof to kill one of the Behemoths and the other three are running. We are pursuing and-"

The Captain said with glee but was cut off by the hard truth that the fleet admiral had.

"I'm glad the Valkof works but you are to end your pursuit of the Behemoths and return to Reach immediately. The Larger Zerg ship just appeared over the planet on the opposite side from Gamma station and launched what we can only call troop drop pods to the surface right on top of New Alexandria there's already high casualties among the civilians and the UNSCDF ground forces have been deployed but they'll be over wellmed if we don't do something about that Zerg ship hovering over the city."

The fleet admirals words hit Cameron like a tone of bricks as his family lives just a town just a few miles outside of New Alexandria.

"I'll bring the whole fleet and,-"

"No Captain Cameron you are to return with the Valkyrur,s spear only and order your fleet to continue their pursuit of the remaining Behemoths we can't let them rejoin the Larger creature."

Cameron gritted his teeth knowing that their will be heavier casualties without the Valkyrur,s spear to aid them but in the big picture Reach is more important and they can't just leave their rear unguarded the Behemoths will just swing around and hit them. "Ok Admiral I'll be back as fast as possible."

"Good well be waiting for you. Admiral Teodor out."

The Fleet Admirals face blinked off the screen as Cameron gave his orders.

"Calypso charge the Valkof and prepare to fire, I want to take out one more of those Behemoths before we return to Reach."

 **Chapter End**


	5. Chapter 5

The modal numbers to UNSC vehicles change because the modals at the current point in time are precursors to the ones used in the future. The names stay the same because they are all upgraded versions.

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

 **Return of the Swarm part 5**

* * *

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **Reach**

 **New Alexandria**

 **January 5th Wednesday**

The skies burned as hundreds of Broadsword and Shortsword bombers descended into the atmosphere from the Epoch-class carrier the Guardians shield. As they arrived over the city they were engaged by a greater number of Wyverns in the skies and the two masses of neosteel and chitin begun their sky born battle to the death.

While the airforce kept all the zerg fliers busy the civilian population was evacuated by whatever means available.

Smoke raised up from hundreds of crashed vehicles and dozens of burning building's across the city as chaos filled the streets of New Alexandria. Zerglings dashed about killing as fast as they could move with their claws and fangs. Hydralisk impaled humans with pinpoint precision four of their five heads bobbing around as they searched for more targets. Roaches melted and shredded walls and cars that were in the swarms path allowing them to bypass obstacles and surge through the city.

However taking the city wasn't as easy as the zerg thought it would be as New Alexandria's A.I. Vale acted with all hast as soon as she had detected the Zerg drop pods entering the atmosphere. Sounding a city wide emergency evacuation alarm she guided millions of people to safety away from the areas were the Zerg landed while the local SWAT and police forces and their security bots held off the advancing horde as best they can until the Military arrived.

At a park hastily made into a evacuation site near the east edge of the city hundred's of police officers gathered along with SWAT teams public security bots and armored APCs forming a defensive barricade while civilians were evacuated out of the city by arriving and departing vtol aircraft and bus,s. Vale taxed her systems to calculate the optimum actions to reduce the loss of life while coordinating the evacuation of millions of civilians from around the city. She even called for the support of nearby city's and their A.I.s comendering their aircraft ground vehicles and the services of any air taxis even some privately owned craft anything that could fly and move people quickly.

She like all A.I's on Reach had conducted simulations of Zerg attacks and evacuations of the populations and coordinating with the military to puse the Zerg back which helped save lives. However the simulations could barley match the unbridled chaos and brutality of the real thing as many millions of people died to the advancing swarm.

The tens of thousands of Zerg moved across the city in groups hitting obvious targets some guarded points of interest like Impalers who also aided the Wyverns in their battle in the sky while Hydralisk shot down surveillance cameras and drones blinding Vale little by little. While Roach's with Drones dug a underground den for the two experimental Zerg Gateways which like the Leviathan and Wyverns are experimental units being tested in the field.

The Maw of the Swarm was a experimental Zerg warping platform that is a scaled down version of the Behemoth organ that opens a Zerg wormhole and allows travel between starsystems just like the Protoss Gateway but is based on the Zerg method of FTL. Such a thing normally takes an phenomenal amount of energy to function but Abastein has found a work around in the form of a psionic power transmission system that uses a Leviathans Unprecedented Psionic power output, so long as a Leviathan remains in range a Maw of the Swarm will remain functional.

In the park evacuation site a senior officer yelled at a few of his juniors to keep their eyes open and not rely on the drones that floated about a few hundred feet above them.

~Captain Andison~ Vale called over the officers radio. ~I've sighted a group of Zerglings headed to your position from the east. Moving down 48 street.~

"What's their numbers?"

~About a hundred so a small group compared to the larger ones still around the city's center.~

"Thanks Vale. Everyone keep your eyes open and watch east 48 street. Mathew get those SWAT Apc's moved to the left side I don't want those basterd's flanking us."

"Yes sir," Matthew replied as he and a few other officers hopped into the four Apc's and drove them around to the other side of the police barricade blocking a possible flanking route. As soon as the last Apc was parked the proverbial shit hit the fan.

"Zerg!" someone yelled as they and other officers opened fire on the rapidly approaching horde of Zerglings. Bullets bounced off their armor or pierced through weak points as grenades both flash bang an high explosive were shot their way and detonated, some officers were even armed with illegal weapons from the police lock up like the shredder shotgun a triple barreled weapon that could blast a persons body apart in one burst of the proximity airburst fragmentation shells exploded in their faces.

There were even a few vertigo inducing V rays, the nonlethal riot control system fired causing half the Zerglings to tumble to the ground as they lost their sense of balance the special wavelength of energy interacted with and interfered with the inner ears and and any sense of up down or balance. Many Zerglings fumbled around as they tried to get back up as the police officers took every opening they could get and pelted the vulnerable targets with gunfire. The staccato of their automatic rifles echoed between the tall buildings surrounding the park was heard by the civilians causing many to panic as the battle for the city reached them.

The Zerg continued to surge into the police barricade killing a few dozen troopers until the timely arrival of the UNSCDF forces who quickly arrived from local military bases riding upon their flying steeds the UH-122 Falcons and the AV-8 Hornets both of which were the modern day equivalents of the twenty first century helicopters the Cobra and the Apache.

Within minutes of Vale sending out the emergency call military bases across the continent went on full alert swiftly deploying all their quick response forces consisting of hundreds of Hornets, Falcons and Pelican dropships transporting Tens of thousands of Marines and hundreds of M5 Warthogs and M607A Scorpion Main Battle Tanks to New Alexandria while the bulk of the forces moved by land or other means.

As the battle between the Zerg and police continued the air-force arrived over head.

"Lieutenant Fallon it looks like the local police need some backup what say we give them some air support," said colonel Ainsworth as he watched the battle below him.

"Roger sir," Fallon replied as he turned his Falcon to the direction of the park quickly followed by dozens of others aircraft who had heard the Colonel over the radio.

Officer Mathew joined his Captain as the attack intensified the Zerglings were getting closer and their numbers were increasing.

"Vale I." Boom. "Thought you said there were." Automatic fire. "Only a hundred of them."

~There was a minute ago. Sorry I hadn't checked the underground subway system, those Hydralisk have been shooting out my camaras all over the city,~ the AI replied sounding uncharacteristically rushed and stressed.

As the police captain shot the front leg off a Zergling as he listened to the A.I, the police Captain was reminded of the past few years he had talked with Vale and in all that time she never sounded like this she must be pushing herself to her limits all across the city.

"Don't push yourself Vale it will do no one any good if you burn yourself out. Try and prioritize the work so the most important things gets done first," the police captain advised as he threw a grenade blowing two Zerglings.

~I know it's just I don't know how to prioritize the lives of people there are so many across the city some are trapped on roofs and in ally-ways and others are running for their lives as the Zerg chase them down. I'm trying my best to lead people to safety and send rescue craft to pick them up but there's... so many of them and the Zerg are shifting their forces around the city chaotically there are so many variables to keep track of... Oh! reinforcement are here.~

As soon as Vale said that Captain Andison heard the distinct sound of rotor blades and jet engines above him as a dozens of chain guns and guided rockets ripped into the Zerglings blasting them into pulp and flying body parts as the sudden air attack shifted the battle. The Zerglings stopped in their tracks and retreated recognising the threat of and the fact they couldn't do anything to combat aircraft.

Captain Andison, Officer Matthew and the rest of the police looked up to see a force of fifty Falcons twenty Hornets and thirty Pelicans all arriving all of which looked like angles to the beleaguered police officers.

"Aah a bought dame time the military got their asses here, I don't get paid enough to fight Zerg," officer Matthew yelled as he waved in thanks at the aircraft a few now landing, and his words giving Andison a laugh.

A few moments later Colonel Ainsworth walked up to the police captain.

"Whos in charge around here?" the colonel asked glancing around at the police.

"I am. Im Captain Andison. Thanks for the save colonel," Andison thanked seeing the insignia on the man's shoulder.

"Your welcome captain but this is our fight now. You and your officers need to evacuate with everyone else we'll deal with the Zerg you and your men focus on protecting the civilians."

"You don't need to tell me Colonel. All right everyone let's get out of here and give the Marines the stage."

Captain Andison and his men all left to the evacuation site as all the hovering military craft guarded the area from the sky.

All of the and Falcons landed one after the other offloading a squad of marines each and shortly followed by the Pelicans who also off loaded a Warthog or Scorpion MBT's each along with four full squads of Marians. The Falcons quickly took to the air again resuming their patrols as the civilians continued to evacuate. The Marians took up the police forces previous position along with a few of the armored Vehicles. It did not take long for the Zerg to return this time in force.

Zerglings, Hydralisk and Roaches now flooded into the area as the marines unloaded their weapons on the beasts. Automatic MA2Bs, firing armor piercing shredder ammo, semi-auto M40 CAWS Shotguns firing 20mm proximity airburst explosive slugs,(The legal kind) and M319 Grenade Launchers launching 40mm high explosive grenades all ripped into the on rushing Zerg but the fire power only slowed the advancing horde as they started pouring in from the side streets. The orbiting Falcons and Hornets saw this as their pilots opened up with their heavy weapons cutting apart the flanking Zerg forces. However a few of the swift Zerglings got into the defense line and tackled some Marinas.

Now normally this would be the end of the poor humans as a human can't hope to match the strength of a Zerg but not this time.

As a Zergling leaped at him Private Wilkins ducted and rolled out of the way moving with unnatural speed and strength as the Zergling landed behind him, both of them swiftly spun around one following his training and the other acting on instinct.

The Zergling swung its blade arms as Private Wilkins dodged side to side as fast as the blades fell he then unloaded his rifle into the Zergling but each round just deflected off the hardened and slanted chitin-armor on its back. The Zergling jumped again and Wilkins fell backwards to the ground pulling his legs to his chest and catching the Zerglings belly on his boots. The beast snapped and clawed at him but its claws and fangs were never meant to reach at such a odd angle. Wilkins quickly reached for his M2G PDWS Magnum side arm and unloaded it into the weak points between the Zerglings belly armor. The creature shreked and thrashed about as its blood spilled on Wilkins until he pushed with all his might, the Carbon, Nanotube Muscle fibers in his BDU suit amplifying his strength, speed, reflexes and controlled by a nanomachine implant in his brain and along his muscles allowing him to use the suit like it was part of his body.

The Zergling was sent flying twenty feet away and was promptly mowed down by the Cerberus triple barreled chain gun of a Warthog.

Wilkins reloaded his rifle and pistol and holstered one while aiming the other at the more Zerg. As he did four Hydralisk spines hit him right in the chest the spines digging right into his CNT ceramic armor but the armor did its job as Wilkins fell on his ass more from shock then injury the spines tips were dug tightly into his armor the ceramic plates holding their shape thanks to the CNT fibers woven into their molecular structure keeping the normally brittle ceramic held together.

Wilkins aimed and fired unloading his magazine into the Hydralisk dropping the Creature with thirty three round bursts, reloading and standing back up as he rejoined the battle alongside his fellow Marines.

* * *

 **Reach capital of Esztergom**

 **Office of the President**

As soon as they were told of the Zerg attacking New Alexandria Cynthia Hargress and her bodyguards and aids all rushed back to the capital from a meeting on one of the other continent's. It was chaos all over Reach as the word of the Zerg invasion spread which only made Cynthia all the more resolved to speak to her people and calm their fears.

After some preparation Cynthia sat in her presidential office chair as her aids readyed the camera.

"Ready," said one of the aides as Cynthia took a deep breath and took a calm expression as she needed to reassure the citizens of Reach.

"My fellow citizens of Reach."

The scene changed to Kaeleas house where her and her family were watching the news.

~The Zerg have finally returned and started their attack on our planet, however even as I speak to you now.~

The scene changed to Kevin's house as he ran into the living room joining his parents.

~Our military forces are deploying in mass to repel the attack and.~

 **The scene changed again to the offices of RNN (Reach News Network)**

The people of New Alexandria are being evacuated as I speak. Please be assured that the government and the military are doing all we can. For all of you living in the areas surrounding New Alexandria I insist that you evacuate farther away from the city for the time being.~

The presidents speech continued as everyone in the building rushed to evacuate, news casters Cathy Moores and Richard Samson ran down a hall yelling for the elevator to wait but it closed just before they reached it.

"Ah damet what now?" Cathy yelled in a slight panic.

"Come on we'll take the stairs up to the roof hopefully we can get the attention of the military," Richard said but in all honesty he knew that the odds of getting out of the city alive was near zero as the RNN building was just a block from where the Zerg had first landed and to be truthful everyone who had gone out the main exit were more than likely dead by now, there only real chance of surviving was if a military aircraft spotted them on the roof.

They ran up a dozen flights of stairs their only option since the power to the elevators was cut moments ago know doubt caused by the Zerg ripping through the cities underground infrastructure. The trek up the stairs was exhausting but the treat of death had a way of motivating them. As the two continued up they were joined by others who had the same idea and by the time they reached the roof their group numbered twelve people. The sun kissed their faces as they reached the roof and everyone collapsed in a hep exhausted from the rapid ascention up the steep stairs but Richard found the strength to keep his composer and call Vale on his green wrist phone calling the emergence 911 line.

"Vale this (heavy breaths) citizen ID number 958741 Richard Samson. I and eleven others are trapped on the roof of the RNN building please send someone to evacuate us."

~Richard this is the Emergency services station Vale is indisposed at the moment I'll call the UNSCDF forces. But in the meantime try and keep the others calm and out of sight the Zerg have fliers patrolling the skyls,~ the emergency worker warned in a calm voice.

"Oh ok just hurry please."

* * *

 **Horizon corp HQ New Alexandria**

 **Office of CEO Markus Shayne**

"Why aren't we evacuating!" Allan asked asked Dannie with a expression of fear on his face.

"I... I got to call my family," Alice said turning away and getting out her wrist phone along with the other adults in the room except for her boss Markus who had cancelled the tests as soon as he had heard that the Zerg had invaded the city he activated his buildings defense system which sealed off all entry ways and activated ship grade twin linked point defense guns that were even now holding off the Zerg laying siege to the building.

Markus glanced over at his son sitting in the sofa by the private bar in his office he was trying to reassure his two younger friends that everything will be ok. Markus was tempted to call Ellen through the Parasite in his brain but he knew that she wouldn't do anything to interfere in the first Zerg-Human battle in the last two hundred years. Luckley he did know how the Zerg behaved a perk of being a secret servant of the Empress of the swarm. This is way he heavily invested in arming his building with some of the best weapons out of the UNSC military and arming his buildings security forces. By now all of the workers throughout the building were in the upper floors and were settling down from the scare of having the zerg attack as security guards in Military grade exo-BDUs like the Marines guarded the upper levels along with a small army of type 22 security bots and turrets.

* * *

 **Reaches upper atmosphere**

 **102 miles over New Alexandria**

A orbital taxi burning like a flare as it descended its speed suicidal as even the laminate heat armor of the craft could not survive the speeds it was moving at as little by little the heat slowly burned through the belly of the taxi and it exploded only for a blue orb to replace it as it continued falling its descent eventually reaching the skies above the besieged city. Wyverns quickly took sensed the psionic blue orb and converged around it by the dozens only to be blasted out of the sky by aura beams.

The orb continued to fall to the city below but was now joined by the falling corpses of the Zerg flyers all of them crashing into city streets or onto rooftops.

At the crash sight of the blue orb a few dozen Zerg gathered as the orb faded revealing Aliassa holding her Valkyrur lance and shield and wearing a new full battle gear. Her new combat suite had a black layer of CNT muscle fibers covered by white organically curving CNCA(Carbon Nano Ceramic Armor) the same as UNSC marine's BDU but more advanced as the armor also had a dozen in layed blue Ragnit crystals that amplified her abilities like the old battle dress she used in the last war with the Zerg.

In the next moment six Zerglings jumped at her but all of them only crashed into a heap as Aliasse reappeared behind one of the Hydralisks one of its secondary heads turned to face her just as its main body was impaled by the lance, it spun ripping the innereds of the Zerg apart, the Hydralisk collapsed its major organs mulched. Then the rest of the Zerg turned to Aliasse Hydralisk and Roacha's fired their spins and acid at her only to be blocked by a powerful flame aura shield. The Zerglings flanked from both sides hoping to catch her off guard but that wasn't to be as Aliasse raised her spinning lance up holding it above her head. From the lance fired forth dozens of aura beams burning holes through surrounding Zerg leaving their hollowed out corpsed to sizzle on the sidewalk.

Aliasse checked to make sure the Zerg were all dead remembering that they can be hard to kill because of their regeneration. Her eyes then turned upon the besieged city as she made a bee line for the Horizon HQ building.

"Don't worry Dannie, Allan, James, im coming."

Aliasse moved through the deserted city streets jumping over crashed vehicles of all shapes and sizes killing Zerg as she went.

~Miss Aliasse you came,~ Vale said over Aliasse,s helmet com sounding somewhat relieved. ~Do you require assistance?~

Aliasse leaped over a large transport truck landing right on top of a Alpha Roach that was surrounded by nine others. The Alpha Roach gave a annoyed growl before rocking side to side trying to knock the little nat off its back. Aliasse pierced her high RPM rotating lance into the Alpha Roach's back quickly drilling a hole through its tough armor then as the last of the lance pierced into the shell Aliasse fired a blast of psionic energy so great it popped the Alpha Roach like a piece of bloody popcorn in a microwave. The resulting shower of blood and gore covered the surrounding Roaches blinding them for a few moments as they shook their heads.

Taking the momentary opportunity Aliasse attacked jumping from one Roach to another repeating the same attack again and again reducing all the Roaches to bloody armored shells in the streets then continuing on her way.

"No Vale im fine. You should focus on evacuating the civilians from the city."

~Understood. However their is a group of survivors trapped in a underground club two blocks to your left. I have no way of getting rescue teams to them before the Zerg in the area find them.~

Aliasse sighed.

"Ok send me the location."

Aliasse HUD blinked and a new set of directions appeared showing the location of the trapped people. Aliasse bent her knees focusing a bit of her aura on her feet then rapidly expanding it as she jumped. The force bounded her several hundred meters in the air sending her flying across a whole city block her reflection shown in the windows of the surrounding buildings as she was pulled back down.

Aliasse continued fighting through more Zerg until she reached her destination a small back alley that lead down some concrete stairs and into a underground night club. Upon entering she saw a large room with a few dozen tables now overturned forming a makeshift barricade, neon sighs and lights adorned the room with laser lights and holo emitters all of which were turned off at the moment or without power.

"Hello is anyone here," Aliasse shouted as she smelled the faint trace of cigarettes and alcohol among other things.

A few moments passed as she walked farther inside easily hopping over the pile of tables.

"St... stop right there," said a shaky voice.

A man with a shotgun leaned out from a support pillar near the edge of the room.

"It's ok i'm here to evacuate you," Aliasse said seeing the multiple heat signatures on her HUD.

There was few muffled voices and then the man and two others came out from behind the pillar.

"Who or what are you? you don't look like your from the military," the man with the shotgun asked.

"Im Aliasse Reaches Observer and-."

"And your a Valkyrur o my god I can't believe I'm seeing you with my own eyes," exclaimed a young girl who looked no older than twelve.

"I take it you've read up on me young miss..."

"Yeah I've learned all about you in school and on the net my name is Holly this is my big brother Mike and the guy holding the gun is my uncle Ethan. He owns the night club."

"Miss Holly. Are there anymore of you?" Aliasse asked glancing at Ethan.

"Yeah... the others are in the offices in back," Ethan answered recognising who Aliasse was and dropping his gun to his side with a uneasy expression on his face.

Ethan lead everyone into the back room of the night club.

"Holly," said a woman as the door opened and she took the young girl in her arms.

"Did you get the food?" asked a man as Mike handed out a few arm fulls of candy bars and chips.

"Yeah and we found someone else."

"Mom Id like to introduce you to miss Aliasse the Valkyrur," Holly said as everyone's eyes turned to the armored woman entering the doorway wilding a large lance and shield.

"Uh... hello miss Aliasse," Holly's mom said as everyone continued to glare in awe at the Valkyrur. Many of them remembering the many times she had intervened in matters of state and economics or with Corporations when the economy started to fail or when there was a problem with how workers were being treated on the asteroid mines. Such news was common over the years.

"Everyone."Aliasse said as her black visor slid up showing her young face. "I'm here to get you all out of here. Get yourselves together and i'll move you to a evacuation site."

All twenty three people looked around at each other felling a little hesitant.

"Come one everyone it'll be ok shes like a real life superhero Aliasse will protect us from the Zerg."

"Shes right i've read about her online and i've saw her on the news one time," one of the man said.

"And we can't stay here the Zerg will find us eventually," Holly's mother said.

A few others also vouched for Aliasse and they gathered their stuff and they all left the underground nightclub. Sensing it was clear and no Zerg were close by Aliasse lead all twenty three civilian's into the street, and contacted Vale.

~Yes miss Aliasse?~

"Vale I need the coordinates of the nearest evacuation site I have twenty three people with me?"

~The nearest evac-site is here.~

A map of the city blinked on the HUD showing the nearest evac-site was a few dozen blocks away in a public park. Aliasse gave a sigh as she knew that the she had only one way to get everyone there safely.

"Thanks Vale.""Aliasse said to the AI and then turning around to the people as they looked around nervously. "Ok everyone hold on tight this will fell... strange."

Aliasse expanded her aura to envelop all twenty three people forming her Aura giant around them. It stood a good five stories tall with Holly her parents and the others safely held in the giants torso with Aliasse in the head.

The Azure blue giant took a few steps before increasing its speed to a full sprint, catching the attention of Wyverns as well as a few hundred other Zerg. Aliasse kept her aura giant moving to the evac-site as fast as it can but was soon barraged by hundreds of micro-glaives the small guided glaives exploded against her aura doing minor to little damage.

Aliasse not wanting to drag these threats to the evac-site diverted to a large open park and held the giants arms in the direction of the Wyverns, from the fingertips shot a dozen curving beams slicing through most of the Wyverns some evaded and retreated but Aliasse wasn't going to let them and she continued shooting until the skies were clear. She then turned her attention to the few hundred Zerglings and Hydralisk that were biting at her heels. She closed the right hand of the giant focusing a appropriate amount of her energy and slamming the fist into the ground creating a rather large explosion that blew out the nearby windows and even sent trees flying out from the ground leaving a shallow crater as big as a football field. There was no trace of the Zerg left and Aliasse continued to her destination.

* * *

 **Evacuation site 47**

 **East edge of New Alexandria**

"Where the hell are they all coming from," shouted Lieutenant Fallon as he showered the Roache below in armor piercing rounds ripping them to bloody bits.

Below him in the rearlines Colonel Ainsworth narrowed his eyes at the zerg rush hitting his forces, he was just glad that his Falcons and Hornets were able to keep the Zerg forces from flanking his position and kept them away from the evac-site which was nearly empty with only a few hundred people to go although the situation did fell a bit one sided something that his time in the military academy had thought him was never a good thing concerning the Zerg as they never do the same thing for vary long unless they want too which means.

"Move the Scorpinas and reserve Warthogs to our rear lines."

Almost the instant he said that the colonel heard a cry over the radio.

~Zerg flanking from the rear,~ marine yelled as a burst of gunfire followed over the radio.

Zerglings along with Roches and Alpha Hydralisk burst from the tree line on the other side of the park where there was nothing between them and the evacuating civilians but open ground.

"Move move move! I want all of available forces back their yesterday" the colonel shouted at the top of his lungs as the drivers of the tanks and LRVs hit their gas peddles taring up the grass leaving brown soil as the accelerated across the open ground driving around the evac-landing field as groups of people panicked. As soon as they had clear lines of sight the Warthogs opened fire with their chain-guns and 40mm grenades launchers and the Scorpiane tanks fired their air burst Canister fragmentation shells ripping through groups of the clustered Zerglings and Hydralisk but the fragmentation bombs only annoyed the armored Roaches as they continued onwards making a beeline for the civilians.

The Warthogs stopped just in time between the on rushing Roaches and their targets firing with every weapon they had but the Roach's continued their advance shrugged off the attacks.

A Roach opened its maw spewing forth a stream of deadly acid at a Warthog only to miss as the driver anticipating such a attack quickly reversed and turned around accelerating into the Roaches head as the gunner continued firing into the heavily armored body and for a moment there was a battle of who had the most Horsepower however the Roach won out as it pulled back and pushed forward with its legs knocking the LRV backwards but in that instant the Roach exploded showering the Warthog with the gore visera.

The whin of charging capacitors resounded as one of the Scorpion tank swiveled its 90mm rail-cannon at another Roache and fired rewarded with a explosion of blood guts and fragmenting chitin.

Normal shells would just punch right through a Roaches body and go out the other end doing minimal damage however the ammo the Scorpion's use is a explosive type that detonates inside the Roach.

The armored vehicles continued firing everything they had to hold off the attack but the zerg just kept coming and the Falcons and Hornets already had their hands full keeping out random Zerglings and Hydralisk that tried shooting them down or getting past them.

It was in that moment that everyone even the Zerg felt the shuddering of the ground as a giant blue woman jumped over a overpass landing right between the front and rear lines shaking the whole battle ground.

Aliasse glanced around quickly reading the situation she aimed her giants arms at the Zerg forces, and in one burst fired hundreds of homing beams at the attacking Zerg forces.

* * *

 **Reach high orbit**

 **ONI stealth Prowler, Shadowed of the mind**

 **Near Zerg Leviathan**

Captain Wes Ayers took a breath as he kept his eyes on the massive Zerg bioship holding position above the planet. It had taken him and his crew a full two hours of careful maneuvering just to get this close without being spotted by the Wyverns and Overseers patrolling around the Leviathan.

"Six hundred forty six kilometers to target," reported helm officer Yun sounding a little stressed.

Beside her was navigator Keslen closely watching the passive-sensors tracking all of the zerg around them.

"Relax Yun. We got the best stealth systems in ONI and ONI only has the best toys," stated captain Wes trying to calming his subordinates nerves as it was her first mission, hell it was the first live combat mission for all of them.

"Sorry sir I just get all tense whenever i'm on a op like this. Enemy's all around and nothing you can do but keep your head down yah know," Yun replied.

"I know what you mean." Keslen replied as Yun lightly taped the chemical RCS thrusters to yaw the ship a little to the left changing the ships course to avoid the patrol route of a group of Wyverns escorting a Overseer a few hundred miles in front of them.

The heat and energy emission catching stealth hull of the ONI prowler was only so good at close range and if any of the Overseers get too close they could detect the trace heat or electromagnetics from inside the ship or even recognise the color and pattern changing metta-skin as unnatural.

The next half hour ticked by slowly as the tense and bored crew let their ship drift along its course until they had reached their destination.

"Were now within the two hundred kilometer mark sir," Yun reported.

"Now the party starts," Captain Wes said as he typed his ID number and then two separate passcodes into his console that indicated that the ten mk12 fusion torpedos were now armed.

Almost as soon as that happened Keslen noticed that few of the patrolling groups of Wyverns and Overseers changed course. "Sir they've noticed us."

"Pitch 90 degrees up," ordered the captain.

Yun followed suit tugging on her control sticks making the stealth ship lift up its nose and aiming it's belly at the Leviathan. Onch they were in proper position Captain Wes hit a launch control button firing all ten of the missiles.

Once all ten missiles had launched Yun gunned the engines accelerating the small stealth corvette away from the blast zone as Wyverns chased them.

The ten missiles struck the leviathan exploding in ten brilliant blazing miniature suns that burned the vary space with their intense light and heat.

* * *

 **Reach high orbit**

 **Epoch class heavy carrier, Guardiens shield**

Fleet admiral Theodor squinted his eyes a little as the screen on his bridge darkend to lesson the intense light from the explosions which also signaled the attack. With a fainted breath he gave a few words of thanks to the brave individuals of that ONI prowler praying for their fast escape and for his own success and the quick return of the Valkyrur,s spear.

"Sir emissens of the fusion torpedos are dropping," reported a crewmen as the bright light faded.

The admiral was a little impressed at the power of the new mk12 anti ship torpedos which were eight times more powerful than the smaller kind normally used by Sabers.

"Bring us into attack position if its still there well hit it with everything we got all at once," Fleet admiral Theodor ordered.

The Admiral had scattered his fleet into three smaller sub-fleets numbering two dozen each allowing the fleet admiral to attack the single Zerg bio-ship from three different angles which would make his fleet less vulnerable to being wiped out and would hopefully give them a better chance at hitting it with a killing blow or at least crippling it.

All of the ships of the three sub-fleets launched their Archer missiles by the thousands with their Mac cannons firing a little after so as to synchronize the impacts of both weapon systems as the massive amount of firepower hit the Leviathan from three angles. The Archer missiles accelerated to their top speed as hundreds of Mac rounds moving even faster smashed into the armored body of the Leviathan, many of its Wyvern defenders and Overseer patrols caught in the barrage were blasted to vapor.

A full ten minutes passed before the barrage ended and the dust cloud started to clear as the UNSC navy continued towards the space above New Alexandria.

The Fleet admiral held his breath as the sensors took stock of the damage if any. He knew that the Zerg wouldn't go down easily but he didn't expect what was reveled.

The multi-kilometer wide dust cloud slowly dissipated revealing the Leviathan surrounded by three clusters of massive Starfish five times bigger than the type a Behemoth carries. They covered the angles the fleet had attacked from forming three overlapping walls of defense all of which had giant holes in them as the corpses of the dead Starfish drifted away.

"Dame," Theodor cursed striking his hand against his arm rest. "Did the fusion bombs at least damage the thing?"

His bridge crew started typing away at their consoles quickly bringing up a closer image of the Zerg Leviathan that showed ten distinct giant holes burned into its thick organic armor. Theodor gave a relived sigh pleased that ONI's surprise attack had inflicted real damage on the beast giving Theodor a glimmer of hope to finish the thing off.

"All ships continue the attack! and tell the orbital Super Mac cannons to fire" The admiral ordered.

In the second and third sub-fleets command ship captains Ruth Hammond, of the ship Crimson star and Alex grayson in the, The pride of augusta both ordered their fleets to accelerate towards the Zerg flagship while continuing to attack.

Thousands more Archer missiles launched quickly followed by more Mac rounds but this time the oversized super Mac cannon joined in. Theodor was a shrewd man and knew that if the SuperMacs fired on the Zerg creature when it first appeared they would be seen as a threat and targeted and destroyed, but if they just continued to float over Reach unassumingly then they could be saved for a full scale attack. There was also the fact that the Leviathan warped right into the SuperMacs orbital plain meaning they couldn't directly fire on the Leviathan without rotating the whole stations but Theodor also had used the past few hours to change the angles of fire and the orbital angles of the SuperMac stations so they could target the Leviathan all at once.

As the attack of the humans resumed the Leviathan came to life across it vast body hundreds of armored scales flexed open revealing spin cannons of varying sizes extend out from the armored hull pointing and all at once they all fired.

* * *

 **Second sub-fleet**

 **Bridge of The Pride of Augusta**

As he watched his fleet fire away captain Alex grayson watched the screen stroking his fine red beard as he marveled at the sear amount of firepower being wasted on one, albeit huge bioship.

He then remembered a certain document from the first Zeg war which stated that they have been known to use some kind of... psionic reinforcement that greatly reinforces their bodies and making them nearly invulnerable to normal weapons, and although rear it does exist and in the past two hundred years they could have granted this psionic reinforcement to their space faring breeds. This clicked in the captains mind explaining to him how the Zerg beast survived ten fusion bombs and no doubt those living shields protecting the larger beast also had such a ability.

"Captain the Zerg ship is returning fire but... it looks like they are firing away from any of our ships," the officer reported.

"What? are they Scourges," Captain Grayson exclaimed in surprise.

"No... it seems that their just normal ballistic projectiles sir."

This disturbed the Captain greatly as ' _he'_ unlike so many others in the military took the threat of the Zerg seriously knowing that the Zerg had shown great strategic and planning abilities in the First Zerg war. For them to suddenly do something so strange sent a warning off in Captain Graysons mind. "Calculate the trajectories of those projectiles."

The bridge crew did as ordered typing away at their control consoles as a simulation blinked on the main screen showing hundreds of lines emanating from the image of the Leviathan spireling around Reach and intersecting the orbits of... all of the Super Mac cannon stations.

Captain Greyson paled for a moment before he shook his head and contacted the fleet admiral whose image appeared on screen.

"Fleet admiral Theodor the Zerg are targeting the Super Mac cannons!" he warned.

The fleet admiral and Captain Grayson knew each other since their academy days and kept in touch as good friends so there was no reason for the admiral to doubt his long time friend.

~Have all the Super Mac station take evasive maneuvers!~ the fleet admiral yelled to his comms officer.

~Yes sir the man said off screen.~

As the minutes ticked by the Spines launched by the Leviathan quickly orbited around Reach and closed in on the SuperMac stations missing by a few kilometers as they continued to fire whittling down the Leviathan's shields more and more.

However just as the Fleet admiral and Captain Greyson both breathed a internal sigh of relief both their faces changed to those of surprise as the spines changed their trajectory's at the last possible moment striking the three sub-fleets. Orders for evasive maneuvers were yelled but before anyone could act the Scourge/Spine hybrids hit their true targets side on ripping holes through the ships armor and venting air and crew members and cutting through many sub-systems crippling half of fleet Admiral Theodors fleet.

* * *

 **Reach surface**

 **New Alexandria**

 **Evacuation site 47**

The surviving Zerg forces retreated after Aliasse,s beams vaporised half their forces in one shot and even the UNSCDF Marines were awe-struck by the display of overwhelming power.

Aliasse took deep breaths a little winded from using so much power all at once.

Normally she could quickly recover stamina but using up a lot of her powers all at once drained her more then using her abilities slowly over a long battle. Seeing that the Zerg were all gone Aliasse lowered her Aura giant to the ground and dispelled it.

"Everyone please make your way to the Evacuation craft," Aliasse said as the roaring engines of six Broadswords flanked by four F-99 Osprey drone fighters flew over head.

"Thank you miss Aliasse," Holly yelled back as she and her family and friends made their way through the groups of soldiers and vehicles boarded a transport swiftly leaving the city.

Aliasse gave a relived sigh as Colonel Ainsworth and a few Marines approached her.

"Miss Aliasse," the Colonel said catching the Valkyrur,s attention. "Thank you for the assistance."

"Your welcome Colonel."

"IF I may ask why are you here?" the Colonel asked knowing that she was the observer of Reach a position that doesn't see any combat other in the political arena.

"Well to be honest i'm here trying to rescue some of my students. I was sidetracked rescuing those people but now i'll be going to my real destination."

"And if I may ask where are you headed?"

"Horizon companies HQ."

"Hmm in that case may be I can help. The main UNSCDF forces have just arrived at the cities border and are pushing their way in. But the inner city is a major hot zone and our aircraft can't get close without heavy anti-air fire from Impalers. If you could destroy those Impalers then our forces would have better air support and we could end this siege faster."

Aliasse didn't have to think much about the purpose as the faster the Zerg invasion ended the better. So many people had died already and a part of Aliasse knew she could never forgive Ellen, but another part of Aliasse knew Ellen's plane to strengthen the human race and Zerg through regulated conflict did make sense in a twisted way. Aliasse's mind and heart were conflicted thinking from the perspective of seeing Humanity as a collective species and seeing them as individuals suffering from the merciless Zerg attacks.

"Ok Colonel were are these Impalers," she asked taking the Colonel up on his offer.

* * *

 **Outside New Alexandria city limits**

The city of New Alexandria was a light with fires and smoke as hundreds of Wyverns, Broadswords, and drones fighters continued their battle over the city all being watched by Ellen sitting on a branch atop a tall tree on a hill overlooking the city. In the clearing below the hill a sizable column of tens of thousands of Marines in Kodiak APCs, hundreds of Scorpion MBT's, and many more armored vehicles entered the city and know doubt there were more moving in from other directions.

"I wonder how well they can fight when I'm not holding back my swarm. All though I did limit the types of units Niadra and Navash could use," Ellen mumbled as she swung her legs back and forth continuing to observe.

* * *

Back in the city Aliasse jumped from rooftop to rooftop, running on the sides of buildings blasting any Zerg she encounters along the way as she makes her way to the locations of the Impalers given by the Colonel. After a few minutes of searching she spotted the first one in a back-ally but it was hanging between the two buildings up high off the ground just below the two buildings roofs where it had the perfect anti-air sniping location.

As soon as Aliasse landed on the opposing building it opened fire the heavy spins blocked by the aura flame shield. Aliasse was taken off guard by the quick reaction speed but countered the attack her selfe. She raised her lance and fired but only grazed the Impaler as it dropped to ground level. Aliasse gave chase jumping down and diving into the ally but soon found her-self caught in between three Impalers.

Apparently they move around in groups.

Reacting swiftly Aliasse bounded from the side of one building to another as the three Impalers fired at her, their spines and glaives shattering windows and cracking polycrete. Counter attacking Aliasse leaped down splitting one Impaler in two with a dropping helm splitter attack. But the victory was cut short as the other two lunged at her perhaps hoping to cleave her with their blades but the maneuver only resulted in Aliasse cutting both Impalers down with a lightning quick 360 horizontal slash.

"Huff. Well three down, a hundred to go. I hope the others are at least easier to find as these were."

Aliasse decided to hurry things along by using her psionic sensory abilities and it was the best way to find the locations of other psionic signatures however it also let other psionically sensitive beings detect her location as well. Aliasse expanded her senses detecting all other psionic beings in the her corner of city but she also felt the surrounding Zerg rush to her location she would have to work fast.

Quickly she sifted through the many thousands of Zerg signals in range identifying all the Impalers locations.

" _Arrraag."_

 _"Hisss"_

As soon as she felt the Zerglings and Hydralisk round the corner Aliasse attacked making quick work of them with a single swing of her lance and releasing a aura wave blade cutting straight through all of them in one stroke. Aliasse returned to the roofs as it was best to avoid distractions and focus on the mission at hand.

* * *

 **Valkyrur,s spear**

 **Near Reach orbit**

The Valkyrur,s spear moved out from around Reach's dark side to the day side.

As they approached the space over New Alexandria Captain Laurencia and his bridge crew caught sight of the drifting husks and damaged hulls of the Reach defence fleet still fighting against the Leviathan.

"Report what's the fleets statue's," Cameron asked.

"Approximately one third of the second fleet has been destroyed and the other two thirds are incurring damage," Major Rin reported.

Captain Cameron had a decision to make, does he attack the Leviathan directly of does he go straight to Fleet admiral Theodor's aide. He took a full two minutes to think the pros and cons over.

"Charge up the main cannon and launch all of the aircraft we have and arm them with anti-ship torpedos," Captain Laurencia ordered.

"I take it you have a plan," Calypso asked.

"We need to end this battle as fast as possible so a blitz attack is the best option. We know that our main cannon can punch straight through a Behemoth so it should at least be able to crack open that things armor."

"And then we send in the fighters to punch a bigger hole in it," replied Calypso.

The crew of the Valkyrur,s spear readied for another battle as squadren's of Longswords and Broadswords and Sabers launched the fleet of smaller craft taking a rearguard position as the Valkyrur,s spear moved ahead of them and accelerated.

The Leviathan took notice of the new threat pivoting a few of its spin cannons to face the oncoming ship and fired.

The Valkyrur,s spear continued it's approach making only minimal evasive movement's as all of its laser cannons, railguns, Mac cannons and Archer missiles fired straight forwards intercepting the leviathan's spines before they ever reached the ship, blasting them to dust and deflecting them just enough to avoid a collision. Then the Scourges came in swarming waves and were blasted by the increasingly taxed point defense turrets as the fragment of Calypso pushed herself to her limit to keep up with all the on coming threats but then the moment came.

"Captain were in range and the Valkof is charged," Marlen reported.

Cameron smiled as he gave his orders. "Fire!"

The Valkyrur,s spear stopped evading aiming the Valkof cannon right for one of the craters ONIs fusion bombs made in the Leviathans armor and fired.

For a briefe instance the Human and Zerg ships were connected as the blinding azur beam bored its way into the armor cutting through the Leviathans outer shell and into its inner chambers. After firing the Valkyrur,s spear hit its RCS thrusters flipping upwards and accelerating away. Once out of the way the Longswords, Broadswords and Sabers all launched four dozen anti-ship torpedos, and in response the Leviathans own point defense spine guns fired shooting down 1/3rd of the torpedos however the rest got through entering the gaping wound and detonated within.

The Leviathan spasmed in pain as all of the Starfish moved instinctively to cover the injury. The Leviathan stopped firing at Theodor's fleet and fled retreating to the dark side of one of Reachs moons where it would focus on regenerating.

"Woo hoo. Look at it run we did it," Hashbrown yelled over the comms as all the pilots watched the Zerg bio-ship limp off blood, gore smok trailing behind it.

~Hmp. Don't count your chicks before they are hatched kid,~ Flayboys voice said over the radio.

"Count chicks? whats that mean."

~Its a old saying from Earth. It means never make plans that depend on something good happening before you know that it has actually happened.~

~In laymen terms don't get ahead of you-self rookie,~ Bull simplified.

~And we still have the Zerg on the ground to deal with,~ Shadow said.

Hashbrown took a moment to think over the words of his fellow squadron member accepting their greater experience with a sigh.

"Well I guess we all still got a lot of work to do then," the rookie Longsword pilot said as he and the rest of the craft returned to the Valkyrur,s spear.

* * *

 **Valkyrur,s spear bridge**

Captain Laurencia gave a long sigh of relief along with the rest of his bridge crew as he watched the Massive Zerg bio-ship retreat behind the moon Csodaszarvas. He then turned to his chairs side screen which displayed the fleet of fighters and bombers returning to the ship.

"Calypso contact Fleet admiral Theodor."

In just a few moments the face of the Fleet admiral blinked onto the main screen looking a little beat up. Apparently when a pair of spines from the Leviathan struck his ship he was knocked right out of his chair and hit the deck but didn't suffer any major wounds.

~Dame fin work Captain Laurencia,~ the Fleet admiral said.

"Thank you sir but were not out of the woods yet. What's our next plan of attack."

The Fleet admiral gave a sighed looking around his bridge.

~Well first we need to get some of our ships into dry dock for repairs and rearming then we hit that Zerg capital ship again with everything we got.~

* * *

 **Reach**

 **Location Classified**

Admiral Maves hit a few buttons on his computer making sure the triple encryption system was on. On screen the face of a grizzled man appeared wearing a armor that looked like a Marine BDU but black with sleek edges and a tactical look to it. ~Admiral,~ the man said with a lightning quick salut.

"Colonel Anderson the opportunity we've been waiting for has presented itself. Deploy your troops around the Horizon HQ and secure it and investigate their date-base for any evidence confirming their connection to the Zerg."

On board the ONI stealth frigate Silent hand Colonel Anderson heard the Admirals words and smiled a wicked smile. "What if we encounter those psionic kids?"

~If they present a problem just use the new TTR bullets on them. It will be a unnecessary problem if they die. Aliasse is fond of them and the president is fond of her so do try to keep them... alive at least.~

"Yes sir."

Colonel Anderson cut the link and tuned to his three hundred troops. One group consisting of ONI agents which are Anderson's private squad and the rest consisting of ODSTS.

All of them standing at the ready in the vaulted hanger that took up the two lowest deck's of the ship. The massive room had been built to house hundreds of H shaped frames each frame having had two sets of ten pods on either side of the H frame stacked vertically atop each other with ladders going up the middle of the frame and connecting to ten short walkways leading to each pod with a open walkway in the middle of the room.

The idea of deploying troops into a battle via orbital drop had been researched before but due to government redirecting of funds and resources to investigating the ancient technology of the warp gates on Reach and Mars and other areas the project aimed at developing the Orbital drop pods suffered delays and setbacks with little progress made especially after a incident that killed ten Marines due to faulty heat shield then the whole project was shelved for two decades until Admiral Maves brought it back this time with ONI funding and before long the first working Orbital drop pods were built and used in many training operations but ODST troops themselves were still few in number as the type of person that is willing to let themselves be dropped from orbit in a tin can were a special kind of brave or crazy and this would be the first real war time use of the pods and the first battle of the ODSTS core. Still every member of the ODSTs were hand picked by Colonel Anders from the elite of the elite in the ranks of the UNSC.

"Men and Women of the ODSTS!," the Colonel yelled at the top of his lungs."We have our orders our mission is to secure the HQ of Horizon corp and investigate their central date-base. We will carry out our mission and no dame over sized bugs are going to get in our way. Oorah!.

"Oorah!" The ODST's replied back as they all climbed the gantrys each man and women of the ODSTs entering their own orbital drop pods.

Shortly after the ship Silent hand moved into geostationary orbit over New Alexandria and opened dozens of armored doors along its bellys, within the ship one after another the pods launched. The first pods drops out the ships launched by a weak electromagnetic launcher on the rails that held the pods then the ones above the first pods fell away then the ones above them and so on and so forth until the hanger was empty.

Within thirty seconds all the pods were launched and burning through the atmosphere glowing red as the outer layers of their heat resistant paint and armor was melted away.

In the skies above New Alexandria hundreds of burning flares illuminated the sky as they descended at break neck speed. Then one after another each pod unfolded its wind brake's and activated their retro thrusters and all pods suddenly slowed their descent in just one hundred meters. All the pods landed in a controlled pattern in the streets surrounding the Horizon HQ building.

The last pod hit the ground burying its noes in the ground then the explosive bolts detonated launching the side of the pod into a car, then Colonel Andersson stepped out with a Rifle in hand and took a look around at the empty city streets bits of blood still visible here and there.

 **Chapter End**


	6. Chapter 6

Wow another long Chapter and this is the end of the Reach arc for now. I'll be coming back to the UNSC for how the Spartan program begins and changes because of the Zerg and for when the Covenant war starts, but I'll be getting back to Ellen and the Zerg after this Chapter.

Also the CNT muscles, armor and Octocamo stealth cloaks of the Marines are a real possible technology and not just from the Metal gear games.

Just Google it.

* * *

"Normal talk"

 _ **"Ellens modulated voice"**_

 **~Radio or Telepathy~**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

 **Return of the Swarm**

* * *

 **Epsilon Eridani system**

 **Reach**

 **New Alexandria**

 **January 6th Thusday 9:48 PM night time**

After landing Colonel Anderson his ONI spec,ops team and their ODST backup regrouped at the Horizon HQ building fighting off a small group of Zerglings that were guarding the outside, the gunfire and the noise of the drop pods landing drew more Zerglings and Hydralisk in from the surrounding area.

The Colonel quickly ordered his forces to split up, the ODST's would secure the Horizon towers lobby and the surrounding area while Colonel Anderson and his team would complete their mission so they all could be evacuated out.

Quickly the ODST's setup a defense line of tripod mounted Heavy Machine Guns with grenade launchers both outside the lobby and inside while other squads went up to the second floor and setup more tripod gun turrets over the front entrance. With their backs protected Colonel Anders and the rest of his men fought their way up the building killing small groups of Zerglings and Hydralisk as they went. The first twelve floors of the building had been ravaged by the Zerg forces that were luckley only small in number so fighting through them was only a matter of time.

Even as the Colonel and his men fought their way up up the tower gun fire ripped through the streets outside Horizon HQ as Zerg and ODST forces battled. Zerglings charged forward by the dozens striking at the elite soldiers with their arm blades but only scratching and denting their tactical armor while others wern,t so lucky as other Zerglings bit into the ODSTs arms and legs cracking the armor and cutting into flesh with their razor sharp teeth.

Four Zerglings pulled one soldier apart by his arms and legs before being blasted to pieces by heavy machine-gun fire. Hydralisk joined the fray showering the entrenched ODSTs with their razor sharp spines and shortly after Roaches arrived although in lesser numbers.

Amid the chaos of battle a ODST trooper heard the shriek of a Roach, turning as it knocked a truck to the side and charged him, the soldier dropped to one knee unslunging his SPNKr rocket launcher aiming it at the on coming Roach, with a few breaths he aimed and pulled the trigger and in a loud blam and roar of a rocket engine the tube ushered forth a neo-steel projectile armed with a high explosive warhead. The rocket lanced through the space between ODST solider and the Roach slamming into the beast armored shell and with a mighty _'Boom'_ blasted a large chunk out of the Roaches shell and stunning it.

Quickly other ODSTs troopers took the opportunity firing on the weakened Roach's weak point, one of the ODST's tossed a few grenades blasted the rest of the way through the armor and the rifles armor piercing rounds ate through the final layer of armor protecting the Roaches brain buried deep in its body the one part it can't grow back putting the Roach down for good. But shortly after more Roaches soon appeared only to be meet by more SPNKr rockets and grenades.

* * *

 **Inside Horizon HQ**

The elevator stopped with a ding, Colonel Anders and his ONI team walked out into a blasted hallway mangled Zerg corpses lined the edges of the hall radiating out from a hole that lead to the lower floor forcing the Colonel and his men to carefully move around it. Reaching the other side there were more corpses of the Horizon security forces both humans and security bots all of them armed with Marine standard issue rifles and Shotguns.

"Lieutenant Wallis. Alfred. Check for them for ammo," the Colonel ordered.

"Yes sir," they replied and begun searching the corpses for usable ammo, it was always a smart idea to keep your ammo stocked especially in a warzone.

"Simons open the door," the Colonel called as the man took point.

Simons moved a few of the bots out of his away as he interfaced with the bulkhead door control via his neural implant and armor systems.

"Can you get it open?" the Colonel asked.

Simons typed on his wrist mounted flat screen a few times before replying. "Yeah give me a minute."

As the ONI team slowly made their way up the building Markus Shayne watched their progress from his desk display screen taking note of his own situation, his office along with the upper floors of the Horizon tower now packed with frightened empolyee's. Markus thought about using his sons abilities to read the minds of the ONI ODSTs but shrugged the thought away as he could already think up the reason their here, it would seem that he could be outed as a agent for the Zerg.

* * *

 **Meanwhile across the city**

Aliasse swung her lance bisecting the last of the Impalers she had been hunting across the city for the passed few hours, two pieces of the corpse fell to the ground as Aliasse took a few breaths listening to the distant sounds of gunfire and shreking that seamed to come from all across the city.

Aliasse then called Radio Colonel Ainsworth reporting her progress.

"Im done with the Impalers Colonel."

~Roger that. We've gotten word that the 3rd battalion has pushed its way into the city but are being hit hard by the Zerg counter attack.~

"And let me guess you want me to help them out," Aliasse said with a sigh.

~Yes. General Veeson himself is apart of the main push into New Alexandria and i'm sure he will be quite willing to deploy more forces toward the Horizon HQ if you give his forces a helping hand.~

Aliasse sighed at the additional detour hearing a sonic boom overhead as a Wyvern and Broadsword fought their own dance of death in the skies over the city along with the remaining human and Zerg air forces both of which had been greatly reduced by this point but the UNSC forces have been gaining the advantage as more forces from around Reach arrive.

"Ok give me the location."

Looking at her helmets HUD Aliasse turned in the direction of the green indicator light on the HUDS map and broke into a ran and jumped high into the air, she landed using her aura to stick to a buildings wall and ran along its curved surface to the opposite side, leaping off then landing on the balcony of another building and continuing from one building to another until reaching her destination.

With a grunt Aliasse landed in the middle of a four way intersection as a horde of Zerglings Roaches and Hydralisk moved away from her looking like they were going somewhere.

Checking her HUD waypoint Aliasse saw that the horde was heading straight for her destination.

"They must be heading to the 3rd battalion's location."

Without hesitating Aliasse leaped into the air again aiming her lance at the small army of Zerg. Her lance spun glowing bright blue as it shot forth a dozen beams each curving at their own target's. The aura beams cut through one forth of the Zerg.

The surviving Zerg growled and shrieked in anger at the surprise attack as they turned around to their attacker. Hydralisk fired barrages of spines and Roaches sprayed their acid all to no avail as Aliasse jumped again up and out of the way of the attacks somersaulted in the air landing atop a Roach her lance piercing through its armor as a few Zerglings leaped at her from three direction's, with a blinding speed she pulled her lance out and spun around slicing them apart and their horizontally sliced bodys fell to the ground. Aliasse then lifted her spinning lance up to the sky gathering her power into a orb and from it fired a continues 360 degree barrage of aura pulsed beams blasting everything around her and easily finishing off the rest of the Zerg leaving behind nothing but a ruined road way filled with smoke and body parts.

Aliasse continued her way through the ruined city until meeting up with General Veeson and the 3rd battalion who were engaged in a battle against a few different groups of Zerg.

Along a long stretch of road between between eight skyscrapers the thunderous bangs of rail guns and staccato of high caliber machine-guns echoed as dozens of Scorpion tanks, Kodiak APC's and Warthog LRVs blasting apart a phalanx formation of Roach's leading a force numbering a thousand.

Those that reached the firing line of Marines ripped through the humans lins but found it harder to kill individual troops as their armor and CNT muscle BDU's greatly increased their survivability in close combat, still dozens of Marines died as Roaches got close enough to spray their acid on to the Tanks and APCs eating through their armor and killing their crew.

As Warthogs fired their chain guns and grenades into the Zerg lines cutting through their weaker breeds Aliasse had seen enough, running forward she firing her lance into one densely packed group of Hydralisks and Zerglings mowing them down by the hundreds in but a few minutes as her aura beams blasted holes through their flesh as the surrounding Zerg who were stunned by the brutal interruption for a brief moment turned their attention to the new enemy. The Marines seeing this took full advantage firing a full barrage of SPNKr rockets into the distracted Zerg the detonating rockets fragmentation warheads blasted half the remaining Zerg forces to bits.

Aliasse jumped over the freshly pulped piles of alien flesh landing amongst the remaining Zerg, a hundred lightning quick swings of her lance turned hundreds of Zerg into bisected pieces of meat as the last few Zergs instincts warned them that she was a greater threat then the marines and they all charged at the flurry of death as the rotating lance ripped and tore through them, by the time their instincts told them to retreat the Zerg numbers only numbered a few dozen.

Aliasse stood amongst piles of Zerg corpses as the Marines looked at her in awe and a little fear from her display of power. Shortly after a man in a generals version of a BDU meet with her.

"Thank you for the assistance. I'm general Veeson. Its a pleasure to meet you miss Aliasse," the fifty something man introduced himself as he held out his hand.

"Likewise general," the Valkyrur replied gripping the mans hand and shaking.

"Colonel Ainsworth told me that you are headed to the Horizon tower, Can you tell me why you need to get there?"

"Some of my students are there and the Zerg may be attracted to them. I take it you were debriefed on my little project."

The General nodded.

"Yes i've read the files you wrote. So miss Aliasse tell me If your headed to Horizons HQ why are you wasting your time running about the city fighting Zerg?"

Aliasse gave a heavy sigh. "Well I can't very well leave you guys to fight the Zerg on your own."

"Nonsense. If you have someone you want to protect you should focus on them not strangers. Besides you have a limited amount of time do you not."

Aliasse met the Generals eyes. "Yeah your right. I dont have anymore time to spare."

"Also something you should be aware of,"General Veeson added. "Sometime ago a few hundred ODST drop pods landed in the direction of Horizons HQ."

Thanking the General Aliasse jumped into the air flying up to the side of a building then leaping up onto another's roof and disappearing from view.

General Veeson watched until the Valkyrur disapeared from his sight then he turned to hi troops. "Ok lets get moving people," the general said as he mounted back up into his custom Scorpian tank it was a little bigger then a normal Scorpian with heaiver armor and five twin linked 50. caliber guns one on each track pod and one on the front of its main body, the turret had two missile launchers and the normal rail gun.

General Veeson and the 3rd battalion moved out making their way to their objective a small lake near the Zerg controlled inner city. On the other side of the lake was a massing army of Zerg numbering in the thousands, it was one of the last major obstacles before reaching the core of the Zerg invasion force.

The General got on the comms checking the airforce,s progress, they reported that most of the Zerg air power has been dealt with however some holdouts remain, still air superiority had been won. The General took a moment to think about his next move, the other battalions making their way into the city gave their own reports concerning their progress. With his updated reports from all the forces given general Veeson made a decision on his next move and got on the comm contacting the artillery support core waiting outside the city.

"Artillery core seven this is general Veeson ID code Delta, Foxtrot, 909 Gamma, i'm requesting a strike close to my location. Stand by for targeting coordinates."

The general then ordered for a few of his men to place laser designators onto the Zerg forces across the lake the designators linked with orbiting satellites and transmitted the targeting date to the artillery teams. 40 miles outside the city limits dozens of M400 Rino artillery guns rotated their turrets angling to the proper elevation and loading the high explosive rounds into their electromagnetic launchers as the capacitors charged up with a building electrical whine.

Moments later a series of resounding booms sounded as dozen's of shells flew at the distant city and the sat guided artillery shells curved and arched as they flew through the air gently descending in a arch to their targets.

General Veeson listened as the artillery shells screamed down between the buildings landed amongst the Zerg forces and erupting into a blossoming field of fire balls and explosions turning the opposite side of the lake into a killing ground scattering the Zerg forces just like what General Veeson wanted.

* * *

 **Across the city**

Aliasse leaped from place to place along the buildings until reaching her destination.

"Not long now," Aliasse said to her selfe.

Not a second later the bark of gunfire rang out along with the roars and skreiking of Zerg, the sounds getting louder as Aliasse continued on course. When Aliasse reached the roof of a building directly across from Horizon HQ she noticed a battle going on just outside the building. Aliasse watched for a brief moment until joining the fray herself. With thwomp Aliasse landed in the middle of a group of Hydralisk that had pinned the ODSTs down and in the next instance a series of slash lines appeared on the Hydralisk and thy fell dead. Seeing that their right flank was clear the ODST's focused their fire on the left flank quickly eliminating the remaining Hydralisk and Roaches.

As the battle ended the ODST's recognised Aliasse as she walked up to them.

"Why are ODST's here did Horizon request the military protect their HQ?" Aliasse asked.

"I can't say ma'am," replied a officer.

"ONI" Aliassa sighed under her breath. "Do you know who I am."

"Yes ma'am."

"Wheres you commanding officer?"

"I can't say ma'am."

Aliasse gave a sigh looking up to the tower she still felt the psionic presence of her students on one of the upper floors however they felt a little scared.

"Well to bad for you I don't need your permission," Aliasse replied as she bent her legs and jumped twenty storys up, using her flame aura she ran straight up the side of the building.

* * *

 **Meanwhile inside**

Colonel Anderson and his men finally secured floors one through fifty fighting small pitched battles against small groups of Zerg and seeing the aftermath of fighting between the Zerg and Horizons security forces.

The surviving security bots and turrets seemed to be non-hostile to humans which made ONIs job easier however they were completely locked out the main elevators forcing Anderson and his team to use the stairs moving from floor to floor blowing open any locked door. After floor sixty the signs of Zerg ended as that was as far as they had gotten. At the next floor they reached the ONI team encountered a fully armed security team of Humans guards and bots all pointing their guns at them.

Colonel Anderson and his men stopped their tracks and quickly spotted the camera above yet another large bulkhead the security team was guarding.

~While i'm certainly glad to see the military doing their job i'm a little curious as to why ONI is in my building,~ Markus asked from the intercom.

"I take it your Markus the CEO of Horizons branch here on Reach," Anders replied not caring he gots twenty guns pointed at him.

The camera panned a little to the left and down to the Colonel.

~Yes and again may I ask why ONI decided to grace me with your presence.~

"We'll explain when we get what we came here for," Colonel Anderson growled as he glanced over at Simons who nodded back.

Simons had broke the firewall to the bulkhead door and open it He had learned a lot on the lower floors concerning the Security programs and coul now hack with a remote connection via his implant and the systems in his armor aiding him.

There was a beep and a metallic clank as the doors parted and the human of the Security team looked behind them for only a moment but that was the only opening the ONI team needed. Lieutenant Wallis fired a Grenade into the security team instantly killing half of the humans as the security bots picked themselves up and fired back grazing the Lieutenant's armor as she dove for cover behind a pillar. The rest of the ONI team had by then gotten to their own cover and returned fire killing the rest of the humans and taking down three of the bots. The fire fight lasted for just a few minutes but ended in all of the security forces dead and only a minor injury to the Colonels team.

 **Ceo office**

 **Floor 199**

Markus cursed at the death of his men and thought what his next move should be. He knew ONI had made their move now because the chaos in the city would prevent any police or authority's from interfering in their operation which no doubt is to find evidence revealing a connection between the Horizon company and the Zerg.

 **"Ellen I have a... problem!"** Markus projected using the parasite in his brain.

Ellen had moved to a new location atop the Artames building the tallest building in New Alexandria standing at 1500 meters tall and 488 meters wide at its base. It was a major business and resort building having not only levels dedicated to many different company's but also restaurant's, shops, and services like adult entertainment, Movie theaters, massaging parlors, clothing, electronic's shops, custom construction shops that use small and large 3d construction units to manufacture a wide variety of things, but also and more often then not services as a repair shop for just about everything.

 **"Yes?"** Ellen replied as she looking down from the lightning rod at the towers pinnacle to the thousands of humans gathered all around.

Artames tower was near the edge of the city and was quickly recaptured by the UNSC forces after a fierce battle. It was obvious to Ellen that the UNSC forces had retaken the building because of its strategic importance as the tower has many helipads and internal space and the fact it is at a high elevation relative to the rest of the city. The helipads could be used to rearm and refuel aircraft greatly decreasing the time it took to do such as well as serving as a staging ground for the army inside the city and giving them a good view of it.

 **"ONI is in my building. I think they suspect that we are connected."**

Ellen gave a amused smile. **"Ok I understand. I'll pay the president a visit. And don't worry I won't do anything too... extreme."**

Ellen cut the connection and stood up watching as artillery rain down from the sky bombarding Zerg positions across the city. Know doubt as a prelude to the UNSC ground forces attacking in full force. Ellen sensed that the last of the Wyverns had fallen and the human's had secured air superiority. The attack on Reach was gearing down and entering its end stages.

Ellen pressed a button on her Collar deactivating it and signaled her Praetorian armor to meet her outside of the city. She then used Null G and jumped launching her into the air and as gravity was not a factor she simply drifted across the city to the surrounding forest. A short time later Ellen meet up with her Praetorian symbiote and flew into low orbit, once out of the atmosphere she used her bio-armors own flight abilities to head straight for Esztergom.

* * *

 **Horizon HQ**

 **Markus office**

"Father please tell me what's going on?" Dannie asked fervently as he and the twins had returned from the toilet. He had held back from reading the minds of his father and his research staff only because of the promise he made to Aliasse but he had sensed the arrival of many more people outside and he had heard the fighting going on outside which had made him curious so he did a little digging into the minds of the soldiers outside.

Dannies father Markus sighed looking down at his desk then glancing up to his son quit surprised that the young man had held off from learning the truth. Markus had already taken a chance with it when he sent Ellen that message but it seems that human and Zerg telepathic wave lengths don't interact.

"What do you mean son?" Markus asked interlocking his fingers together.

Dannie walked up to his father slaming his hands on the desk. "Don't play with me. I know their are ONI agents in the building."

"I see so you've noticed.'sigh.' "Well... you see it seems they think I've got a secret that could endanger Reach."

The words were a little off putting but Dannie got the gist of his fathers meaning through his emotions, Aliasse said not to read thoughts but she said nothing about emotions. From how his father felt it wasn't anything danger's but it was a connection to someone.

"Ahaa!?" yelled Allan as everyone turned their attention to him, then to where he was looking seeing a armored figure hanging onto the glass wall by their arms and legs.

Aliasse was holding onto the side of the reinforced windows which **. "Its me Aliasse,"** she projected to her students sliding up the blue visor showing her face **. "Now could you open a window or something."**

Dannie confirmed that is was her and asked his father to open the window letting her in. Markus hit a button on his desk sliding open the window.

"Teacher."

"Miss Aliasse." The twins yelled as they ran over to her.

"That armors cool where did you get it."

"Are you going to fight the Zerg." they continued somehow more impressed with their teacher.

"Ah well it was made by a country named Gallia back on earth," Aliasse explained as Dannie walked up to her. "Huh?" at that moment Aliasse felt a very weak psionic presence from Markus as he sat at his desk and the two locked eyes for a moment.

"I'm glad to see you but why are you her miss Aliasse?" Dannie inquired as Aliasse turned her gaze back to him.

"I was worried for you so I came as fast as I could. I had to fight through army of Zerg to get here"

"What about the others?"

"Kaelea, Fabricie, and Kevin are all fine the Zerg only attacked New Alexandria. By the way why is ONI here?" Aliasse asked turning to Markus.

 **Horizon HQ**

 **Floor 70**

A double door parted and Colonel Anders and his team entered a large room aiming their weapons around and between the computer server towers filling the room with blue coolant tubs running below and above all of the metal grating covering the walls and ceiling. The ONI team moved deeper into the room until coming to a control terminal. Alfred and Wallis turned around covering Anderson and Simons as they connected the terminal to a quantum comm link that could bypass the ecm jamming on the server room.

"Were linked," Simons reported as he finished the connections.

Colonel Anderson typed on his lab-top connected to the terminal smiling as it was linked to another quantum comm unit across the planet. A window open on the terminal screen showing a sparse room, which looking like a hotel room. A person walked into the screens viewing the angle only showed their legs but then they sat down revealing it was Fabricia.

~Are you ready,~ Fabricia said wearing a uncharacteristic scowl on her face upon seeing the Colonel.

"Yes we've made linked to the server farm, now it's your turn. Do your part and you won't have to worry about your parents."

Fabricia sighed giving a piercing stare to the colonel on screen.

She and her mother had been evacuated from the outskirts of New Alexandria but it was by agents of ONI who anticapating she could be useful ' _took'_ her and her mother into protective custody. Shortly after they sedated her mother and told Fabricia that they wanted her to use her power to collect a bit of information for them.

"Ok give me a minute," Fabricia said as she began by placing her hands on a black cube containing the quantum entanglement comm unit.

Within a few moments she linked fully to the Horizon server and started a cyberspace battle against the AI defending it. Fabricia was in no position to hesitate and the AI was not backing down so she had no choice but to use her understanding AIs and computer programming to rip it apart code line by code line. Her own psionic powers greatly adding in this understanding.

and started her search for the information ONI wanted. She cracked through powerful fire walls and flipped through millions of gigabytes of data in a few minutes before she came across something interesting, it was a statistics report on the possibility of people developing psionic powers and their connection to people who lived during the first Zerg war along with records and gene samples from hundreds of thousands of people taken over the past two hundred years.

Fabricia stopped upon seeing five names at the lists top. The records stat the the names were bumped up to the top of the list only a few months ago and were the names of Fabricia and her friends who all were trained by Aliasse.

* * *

 **In the skies over Esztergom**

Ellen reentered the atmosphere protected by her aura as she fell towards the ever approaching ground, her Praetorian symbiote armor shuddered as its wings unfolded slowing the speed of descent.

As she continued to free-fall Ellen noticed a group of fighters braking the sound barrier as they patrolled the skies over the capital.

Ellen was glad she had taken praucation's by wearing the psiblock collar and other stealth taken from the Tal'darim otherwise the multi-spectrum sensors that are used by the UNSC in the modern era would have spotted her and those jets would be turning in her direction. Ellen could still hardly believe the UNSC from the Halo games were real, not everything was the same as the games however but still the fact an organization called the UNSC and it's shadow half ONI existed was still a mind scratcher and Ellen was determined to get to the bottom of why and how the Zerg, Protoss, and now UNSC exist.

As she continued falling Ellen deactivated her collars psionic jammer field and linked to the Locust she assigned to watch the President quickly receiving the the leaders coordinates. Ellen shifted her arms, legs and armors wings along with the tail to control her direction as she fell. Soon she was directly over the government building.

President Cynthia Hargress laid in her bed in the presidential building, she had been just as if not more worried for the people of New Alexandria but as her aids told her it wouldn't help anyone if she over works herself so she gave some ground and took a nap in a bedroom in the building meant just for such overnight stays. Cynthia turned in the bed as she felt the building shake a little, a few minutes later the door opened as one of her aids entered with a look of panic on his face as the light from the open door roused the lady president.

"Miss president ma'am we.. uh we have a situation outside."

"Huh? uhh." the miss president sighed to the interruption to her sleep as she got up staring at the aid with a annoyed look."What is it?"

It took the aid a few minutes to explain the whole situation to Cynthia and when it was all said the president was just as stunned as her aid as she walked to the buildings front doors at a brisk pace.

 _ **"Well it's about time. Were you taking a nap Miss president."**_ Ellen said in a modulated voice that now echoed in a more menacing tone.

Cynthia gasp quivering at the presence of the leader of the Zerg swarm along with her secret service guards as the Zerg empress stood in the middle of a giant bonfire of blue flame's.

Why the leader of the Zerg was the question screaming in the Lady presidents mind.

"Your... the Zerg empress. correct?!" Cynthia asked.

 _ **"Yes I am. Now then."**_ With those words Ellen reformed her aura into a transparent dome of hexagons with two chairs in the center _ **."There is a matter I wise to talk with you... and only you about."**_

Cynthia gulped as the prospect of talking to the one responsible for the deaths of billions of people in the 21 century was the absolute last thing she expected today but the lady president also knew that if the empress of the Zerg wanted to kill her she and everyone here would already be dead. "Ok... I'll talk."

Ellen watched as the reluctant women told her bodyguards to stay put and not do anything to antagonize the Zerg empress, before she slowly walked forward to the dome's entrance and entered. The domes opening closed and became cloudy as Ellen altered the aura so the light was distorted so no one could read their lips but could still see their forms like a cloudy shower wall.

 _ **"Please have a seat,"**_ Ellen said as she sat in one of the Aura chairs followed by the president.

"What matter do you want to discuss?"

 _ **"I have become aware of a ONI operation to infiltrate the Horizon company's HQ here on Reach."**_

"Horizon company?" the president said in a questioning tone indicating that she didn't know about ONI's actions. "Why is this a concern of yours," Cynthia asked suspiciously.

 _ **"Well as it turns out the Horizon company was created by me and has been my back door onto Reach and Earth. They have been my tool to push and advance humanity into the future since the last war between the Zerg and Humanity."**_

Cynthia flinched at the ramification of this revelation.

The Horizon company has major hands in many technological fields ranging from power generation, spaceship design and construction, Medical research and health care. The fusion reactor technology that is the newest and most powerful source of energy thus far in human history was first developed by Horizon along with many military innovations including the orbital elevators on Earth and the Valkyrur spear battlecrusier which was built by the Earth branch of the company, and it was the most advanced spaceship ever built with all the latest advancements including the anti-gravity drive that allowed the ship to continue up into orbit after exiting the warpgate without Reaches gravity just pulling the ship back down to the ground. Such technology would allow larger ships and cargo to be moved between Reach and Mars and would have a vast and wide reaching effect on the economies of both the Sol-system and Epsilon Eridani system. But all of that would collapse if this information went public.

"No wonder the empress wanted a private conversation," Cynthia thought running through her options.

"Miss uh"

 _ **"Call me Ellen"**_ she said it was centuries after the fact so there was no reason to not use her real name.

"Ellen. What need do you have to come to Reach or Earth. Your the empress of the Zerg?"

Ellen made a small smile _ **. "You do kn**_ ow what I am," changing her voice to normal.

"Yes I do. Your a valkyrur like Aliasse. A very powerful psionic race. However during the twenty first century you came to control the Zerg who had came through the Warpgate on Mars along with the Protoss."

"Yes. You know your history. Understanding such is a sign of a true leader because..." Ellen left it open for the President to explain.

"Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Ellen chuckled continuing. "Now to answer your question I simply want to collect books, vr games, anima and tv series to watch. leading the zerg is great and everything but it's a little... boring. That and I like to keep a personnel eye on humanities development. I did do everything that I did to ensure the survival of both Humans and Zerg."

Cynthia breathed taking in all of this information with a bit of trepidation as she pieced her reasoning together and understanding that the dynamic between the Zerg swarm and Humanity even with the two hundred years of peace has prevented humanity from falling into the state of social decay, stagnation and government and corporate corruption that existed during the late 20th and early 21st century.

"I take it ONI is trying to find a connection between Horizon and you."

"Yes so if you could be a big help and get the big guy incharge of ONI over here we could all have a good long chat in your office."

* * *

 **Aldiss**

 **Kaeleas home**

Kaelea tossed in her bed worried for not only her friends but also the rest of Reach. The news reported that the large Zerg bio-ship had been damaged by the efforts of the UNSC fleet but it wasn't destroyed and may still attack again.

 **~Kaelea!~** atelepathic voice echoed in her mind startling the sleepy and anxious young girl out of her bed.

 **"Dannie?" she replied.**

 **~Yes its me. I'm sorry to bother you at this late hour but we kind of need you and Kevin to rescue Fabricia.~**

Kaelea put her clothes on as she listening to Dannie fill her in on the situation concerning ONI and their kidnaping of Fabricia and her mother so they could get her to hack into Horizons secure database which was cut off from the outside world.

She sneaked out of her house walking along the coast of her seaside town to the nearby parking lot where a orbital taxi was waiting for her.

"Hello miss Kaelea. "Calypso greeted as the psionic young girl sat down buckling herself in." I'll be your pilot for this little operation. We'll pick up mister Kevin and then proceed to the location of your friend."

Kaelea was more then a little interested in why the AI of Reaches capital city was controlling the craft but such questions would probably be rebuffed given the nature of the current situation.

The orbital taxis engines roared to life as the craft rose up, accelerating through the air and up into space. The orbital taxi jumped and bucked a little as it skimmed over the upper atmosphere crossing over continents in only a matter of minutes. Within twelve minutes they had picked Kevin up and continued to their final destination a small rural town over a hundred miles from New Alexandria.

Calypso landed the Orbital taxi in a corn field at the edge of town and Kaelea and Kevin made make their way through town using the information from Dannie to guided them to a hotel in town.

"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Kevin as he and Kaelea crouched behind a small brick wall across the street from the hotel.

"Yeah that's the palace Dannie showed me."

The two proceeded with caution as they were dealing with ONI here and could not afford to mess up. Quietly they moved closer to the hotel making sure there were no surveillance camera's hidden around. Their time in the forest made them more observant of their surroundings and cautious of traps and slowly they got closer taking out a few drone fly-cameras that were watching the area.

 **Inside the hotel**

 **Second floor**

 **Room 8**

Fabricia continued to comb through the database searching for the information ONI wanted. Most of the interesting date was on some project called Bloodline that was meant to produce naturally psionic people among the population by creating designer babies with genes from the descendents of the girls who served in the Valkyria squad during the first Zerg war and having them breed with people who are descendents of the Valkyria squad members from the first Zerg war.

There were many other things in the database but not as interesting, but one other bit of information did catch Fabricias eye.

It was a discrepancy in the security camera time records of the tower that at first looked like nothing even with a close examination but still Fabricia felt off about the records so she then looked at all of the security logs revealing that there are more than one and with a more thorough examination that normally would have needed a AI she manged to piece the parts together after a time consuming examination and dissection of the records.

Fabricia found that the logs of one person entering and leaving the Horizon HQ building were erased. For some reason this person is important, so important that all records of their existence had been erased and overwritten, luckley for ONI Fabricia using her psionic abilities could repair even those quantum shards of lost information. Still it took the better part of a hour to piece the shattered information into something that can be made sense of.

"Are you done?" asked a ONI officer sitting next to Fabricia.

"Yes hears the date," Fabricia replied sending the restored date to the ONI mans laptop.

The man looked over the jumbled static date until coming upon a still of a woman with blue hair. There were a few more pictures of the woman entering and leaving the Horizon HQ building with one picture the first taken given the time stamp. It showed CEO Markus landing his private shuttle on the buildings rooftop landing pad and then bringing the woman into his office.

"Good work Fabricia."The ONI agent said. "Now I want you to look into the records of the orbital traffic system and find out where Markus came from on that day."

Fabricia sighed before getting back to her job. Linking with the database of the orbital stations tasked with monitoring the traffic around Reach Fabricia searched for any craft matching the ID of Markuses shuttle finding a match, it lead to Markuses private star yacht, records indicate that a few days before the day he arrived with the woman he left the inner star system and headed out into the outer parts of the system but the last records of his flight path indicated that he wasn't heading for any of the outer colonies but rather up above the orbital plane of the star system. He was gone for two days and then returned docking his Yacht at a orbital shipyard and took the Yachts shuttle down to Horizon HQ.

"This must be it. That women is not from Earth or Reach," The ONI agent muttered as he connected to Colonel Anderson giving him the report on their findings.

~Interesting that women... given her face must be... Ellen the leader of the Zerg~ Anderson muttered on screen.

Just then the hotel room door exploded outwards as if it was sucked out ward by an unseen force. The ONI agent stood up quickly unholstering his M3-7 silenced pistol and a moment later another ONI agent entered from the connected room next door. Bothe men had their weapons drawn aiming at the void left behind by the door.

"Crap," Kevin exclaimed under his breath he didn't expect them to react so fast after Kaelea ripped the door off as a distraction.

Peeking through the back window he watched as one of the ONI agents slowly walked out to see if anyone was outside the room. Both ONI agents and Fabricia were facing where the door should have been so he had a clean shot but they we're still human and he hesitated for a moment before shaking his head and acted. Kevin started his half of the plane he and Kaelea camup with.

He focused his psionic powers on to the couch and chairs and all at once they all burst into flames along with the rear wall and window having done his job Kevin retreated.

The ONI agents were in a panic as room burned forcing them to hastily grab their computers, equipment and Fabricia and ran. As they got out of the flaming room they waved their guns looking for any possible threats as they made their way across the second level walkway and down the stairs to the parking lot where a van was witting for them.

They put Fabricia into a car as two other ONI agents arrived.

"Whats going on?" one of the other agents asked but before he could get a response the four ONI agents were sent flying up into the air landing roughly on the other side of the parking lot.

"Ahh wh... what the hell," a agent exclaimed as he stood up holding his brushed side.

He and the other agents looked over at the car where Kaelea stood holding up both Fabricias unconscious mother and another ONI agent with her telekinesis who was left to guard her.

Kaelea tossed the ONI agent over to the others just as Kevin came along and hot wired the van. Unlike Kevin, Kaelea had no problem with using her powers on people especially people who kidnap her friends and threaten their family. Space rippled as Kaelea sent out a powerful telekinetic force pushing the ONI agents into the office building wall with such force that their bones creaked and the plaster wall cracked as they were slowly being crushed to death.

"Kaelea that enough!" shouted Kevin as the vans engine roared to life.

"Fine," Kaelea replied as she carefully put Fabricia's mother into the van and got in her self.

The ONI agents dropped to the ground gasping for breath as the van sped away.

Kevin hit the gas watching for anything in his path as he quickly drove to the landed orbital taxi and once they were all onboard it flew off into the stratosphere and beyond ONI's reach.

* * *

 **Horizon HQ server room**

"Agent Naden... agent Naden come in," Colonel Anderson called into the screen of the terminal filed with static.

"Sir whats wrong," Simons asked.

Anderson growled. "Something happened to the agents guarding Fabricia and her mother."

"That would be my students."

Colonel Anderson and his men turned to see Aliasse walking toward them from the rooms front entrance and she looked pissed.

"Shit. I got a report from my men outside that you had arrived," Colonel Anderson growled as the Valkyrur approached him.

"I know what your up to Colonel and weather or not you turn up any evidence to the illegal activity of Horizon corp is besides the point. You kidnaped one of ' _my'_ students and her mother and blackmailed her into doing what you wanted," Aliasse stated in a very hostile tone.

Anders flinched but was not backing down. "ONI works to protect humanity and the elimination of threats to it. And even if I did do something like that what evidence do you have to prove it."

"You ONI people may act to protect humanity but your methods are appalling."

Just then one of the ODSTs from outside ran into the room.

"Uhh sir."

"Yes sergeant."

"Admiral Maves is on the line. And the President is also calling for Aliasse to come for a meeting."

The colonels eyes widened in surprise along with Aliasses. The ODST

* * *

 **Office of president Cynthia**

 **A half hour later**

Aliasse and Colonel Anderson were let into the office of the president both greatly surprised by the prescance of not only Admiral Maves but also that of Ellen still in her Praetorian armor sitting not in a chair but supported by her tail as she sat opposite the Admiral and the lady President, the three of them staring at each other.

"Miss president whats going on?" Aliasse questioned greatly surprised and worried that Ellen was here.

"Please have a seat miss Aliasse. Colonel Anderson," the lady president said guestering for them to sit.

The two sat down, the Colonel sitting beside his superior Admiral Mave's while Aliasse sat beside the President as the four humans now each finding themselves staring into the eyes of the empress of the Zerg swarm her selfe.

Ellen took a few moments to look around at each of the humans stopping at Aliasse in her new armor and giving a crisp smile under her armors face plate.

"Nice outfit Aliasse you get it at a Macys," Ellen joked about Aliasse,s armor.

Aliasse rolled her eyes as the Macy's clothing store had been nonexistent for the past hundred years."No it was a gift from Santa claus. I was a good little girl... unlike some people," Aliasse joked back.

The two Valkyrur have developed something of a strange relationship.

Ellen chuckled as the humans shifted in their seats at the bit of banter between the two most powerful beings that humanity has ever encountered.

"Now... lets get down to business and have a long talk. I think Admiral Maves wise's to know of the relationship between my selfe and the Horizon company is that correct."

"Yes" the Admiral replied.

"It's simple really. I founded the Horizon company for the purpose of creating technology that would allow humanity to reach the stars and clean up the Earth, allowing for Humanity's survival and expansion. They are a necessary tool to manage humanities development and make sure you don't fall back into the state of stagnation that Humanity was in during beginning of the first Zerg war."

The ONI Colonel and Admiral were quite shocked at this revelation.

"So their just your tools and puppets in this war you call a game!" Anderson said slamming his fist on the table greatly upset at the fact that Horizon as a whole was just a tool of the leader of the enemy of humanity.

"Are you using Horizon corp to control Human society?" Admiral Maves asked acting more calm and stoic.

Ellen made a small chuckle at the expression on the Colonel and Admirals faces.

"No. Personnely I just use them as a back door to return to Earth and Reach so I can enjoy exploring both worlds. It allows me to get a feeling for how Humanity is progressing as a space faring civilization and to get my fix of literature books, Anime and other types of entertainment from the latest fiction. Also only the leaders of the company are under my influence. I mostly let Horizon do what they want so long as they follow my directive that they keep advancing humanity technologically and keep people from abusing their technology. Remember the mass recall of those VR drug tech a few decades ago."

Everyone thought a moment remembering the time when they were kids and when a new kind of VR tech came out that was so advanced it could allow a person play in a living breathing virtual world no different the real life.

This kind of technology had existed since the 2050's however after the first Zerg war laws were put on certain entertainment technology kept people focused on the real world and not a made up Virtual although a black market for such tech did still exist.

However on Reach during the 2160's there was a lax on the ban that resulted in a new version of the full VT dive tech which used nanotech injected into the brain and spinal cord which could stimulate all of five senses to a persons brain allowing the person to feel, see, touch, smell and interact with a life like VR world just like in that anime Sword Art Online.

But the tech took a dark turn when underworld criminals had the idea of creating a simulation program that allowed people to experience drug like highs in that VR world that were just as addicting as the real thing and it went down hill from there. Eventually after just a few years of operation hundreds of thousands of people were wasting their money buying this tech on Both Reach and Earth resulting in many lost workers and jobs. Then the nano-VR tech was recalled and banned by Horizon corp and the governments of Earth and Reach.

"I remember that whole travesty," Anderson said thoughtfully as if he knew someone that had used the VR drugs.

"How dare you!." Colonel Anderson shouted with a enraged expression. "You kill millions. Billions of people and think you can just walk around like nothing is wrong!."

Aliasse felt the same way but also found herself thinking about the logic behind Ellen's action's, that although cruel has pushed Humanity to achieve all it has in the past two centuries.

"Colonel I understand how you feel and while I don't condone Ellen's actions I do understand them," Aliasse stated as the Admiral and his subordinate cooled their jets.

"Still. the Amiral started."We are at war and enemies you are quit arrogant thinking your safe returning to the vary worlds you had ravaged," the Admiral said as he stared at Ellen with venom in his eyes.

Ellen just stared back with a intense look her eyes, looking sad and resolved at the same time.

"I'm the monster that threatens humanity so people like you can play the hero's. As the Zerg swarm attacks your planets our species clash and make war but it is a regulated thing like in nature so mutual destruction or extinction is avoided but our two races still evolve and progress towards the future together as we interact even if it's violently."

Those words took everyone by surprise and both Colonel Anderson and Admiral Maves took a few minutes to think and wonder exactly what go's through Ellen's mind.

"Anyway the fighting on Reach will be over soon and I with my Zerg will leave. And also just so you know we Zerg will never go passed taking a few cities. So long as you humans don't do something stupid like blowing up a planet we Zerg will not use any genocidal attacks like in the last war."

After saying her last words Ellen left leaving the humans to think it all over.

* * *

 **Epoch class carrier Guardian's shield**

 **Reach orbit**

 **Gamma station dock 10**

After the battle with the Leviathan Fleet Admiral Theodor reorganised the fleet into ten smaller groups that were more maneuverable and less vulnerable to the bio-ship concentrated attacks. Still many ships were damaged and needed time to be repaired luckley for the UNSC fleet the Leviathan was also taking its time healing after the internal damage it took from the Valkyrur spear.

Still the Zerg forces were growing as from behind the second moon of Reach the Leviathan spawned swarms of Scourges and Wyverns as well as more Starfish replacing the losses it took in the last battle.

On the ground the Zerg forces were being pushed back by both the wall of artillery the humans were firing ahead of their ground forces and nonstop aerial bombardment from Short swords. But soon enough the Marines on the ground who after amassing around the cities outer districts were finally ready to push deeper into New Alexandria and hit the core of the Zerg invasion force.

"Sir we've gotten word that the Zerg forces have decreased by 20% and they appear to be in retreat," reported the comm officer.

From his command chair behind the tank crew General Veeson thought a moment over the known Zerg tactics and abilities.

Unlike the game Halo the design of UNSC tech was more realistic the inside of the Scorpion was a single open room like the M1A1 Abrams with display screen and controls on the walls. The whole body was covered with slanted armor which also covers the four independent trak pods. The main rail gun is placed higher to give it a better firing angle and is placed farther back to allow more slated armor in front and also has a faster firing speed thanks to its belt fed ammo drum placed below the turret. The four trak pods allow for more maneuverability over rough tarran and also acts as a redundancy to one of the trakpods being damaged as the design of the scorpion has the engines placed inside the trakpods themselves and allows the tank to continue to function even with one track pod damaged, this also frees up space inside the main body for the three to four man crew, more armor and electronic systems to increase the tanks performance.

Veeson looked to his left at the flat screen showing a real time over head view of the distribution of Zerg and UNSC forces across the city. The Zerg controlled most of the inner city districts and the UNSC had growing control of the outer districts however something was off, the fact that no civilian corpses have been found. That was a red flag in Veesons mind as the Zerg no doubt have eaten the citizens and converted their biomass into more zerg, but even the Zerg couldn't convert millions of people into Biomass in such a short amount of time at least not without a massive Hive cluster and that itself would take a long time to grow so something was going on behind the scenes. Following that train of thought the General ordered the deployment of some of his best scout teams to look for anything strange going on underground, Veeson then took a look at the distribution of the Artillery groups outside the city making a realization.

"Dame we're too foolish and hasty," the general growled.

"Something wrong sir?" asked the gunner.

"Yes," The general replied as he called the other generals leading the attack

~Yes general Veeson,~ asked general Larstein.

~It must be important if your calling both of us,~ said General Alburt as he fiddled with his beard.

"Yes it is. I believe the Zerg are luring us into a trap. They have been retreating far too quickly and haven't been hitting us as hard as I would have thought."

General Albert humed as he thought. ~Your right i've been wondering why they haven't been as aggressive as the records in the Last war report.~

~What do you think their up to?~ General Larstein asked

General Veeson cleared his throat. "Well if I were to put money on a theory they plan on a massive counterattack once we move our forces farther into the city. Once we are committed to a large scale ground attack and can't disengage they'll burrow under the city and get past us then they'll take out our artillery support while their forces left in the city will keep us occupied until their flanking force's has come back and hits us from both sides."

Bothe of the other Generals thought over the scenario.

~We'll that certenly is a worst case scenario.~ replied General Alburt. ~So what can we do to counter them? ~

The three Generals took the next 30 minutes to hammer out a counter strategy redeploying their forces around the city and sending small groups of ground forces and aircraft to guard the artillery vehicles.

"This looks better," said General Veeson as he looked over the new formations and distribution of their forces. "Ok lets get this show on the road we can't wait any longer."

With that the three general's gave the order for a all out attack all over the city. Marines and their armored Vehicles serged through the city constantly ambushed by Zerg burrowing up from the network of tunnels that criss cross the city, the battle for New Alexandria took a more serious turn as both forces committed to a final push for control of the city.

Four hours the two forces fought across the city, the battle lines constantly shifting back and forth as Zerg forces would attack one moment only to retreat the next and then burrow and flank from a another direction. However the technology of detecting seismic vibrations has evolved over the last two hundred years and this allowed the UNSC marines to detect the direction of the Zergs movements preventing a great many casualties from underground ambuse's.

Then the reports came in that small groups of Zerg we're appearing outside the city and attacking the artillery tanks but thankfully they were repulsed with only minimal losses but the long battle was just beginning as the fighting soon spread to the upper floors of super skyscrapers and other buildings.

* * *

 **New Alexandria**

 **East block 44**

"Roach!" screamed private Yash as his squad opened fire on the living tank rounding the corner of a skyscrapers habitation block. Bullets bounced uselessly off its thick armor as the beast turned to face its would be attackers shreking as it charged.

Yash and his squad knew all too well the dangers of a Roaches acide and jaws so they beat a hasty retreat into the nearest building. The door of the coffee shop slammed shut as the Roach charged shattering the weak door glass but got its head stuck in the hole.

The Roach wrenched its head free and backed up spewing its acid on the door frame, steam billowed off the building as it melted, but by then Yash and his team had taken the stairs up to the second story roof.

"Shit now theirs more of them," Yash yelled as he looked out over the roof to see ten Hydralisk and four more Roaches enter the area as gunfire from other squads could be heard across the open level as fighting had spread throughout the garden level of the tower.

 _Snap, snap, crack,_ sounds were made as Hydralisk spines impacted the polycrete around Yash forcing him to backoff from the edge of the roof.

"Grenades!" shouted Sargeant Anvil.

Quickly all nine squad members pulled out their M5 fragmentation grenades pulling the pins and threw them over the edge. The small balls of death fell amongst the Roches and Hydralisk who recognising the threat from the previous deaths of other Zerg and they scattered but as the they did bullets and 40mm airbursting grenades rained down on top of them taking them by surprise. The grenades were a trick to make them turn their backs. Titanium tipped bullets ripped through the weaker Hydralisk armor dropping four of the multi-headed creatures and the airburst grenades blasted holes in the Roches armor but the advantage didn't last for long as the remaining Hydralisk returned fire forcing the soldiers to retreat back into cover.

"Aaa shit," shouted Private Landon as a spine poked out from between his shoulder and body armor.

"Just lay still i'll dig the spine out," said the squad medic Sally as she got out her medical kit grabbing some anesthetic and a bullet extractor.

"Ok now we need to lure them back in. Yash your up," sargeant Anvil said.

"Me? why me."

"Why not. Get your as down their and shoot at those Roach's or I'll throw you down their. You get me."

"Yes sir," Yash replied as he returned down stairs to the coffee shop.

Carefully he peaked out from every corner before moving down the hall warrey of a Hydralisk encounter.

After making his way down to the coffee shop he ran from cover to cover until getting close enough to see the Zerg were just waiting outside the shop. A few Roaches and Hydralisk were visible but not all maybe they were going around the building or even up it, Yash didn't know all of what the Zerg could and could not do a few hours before he had seen a Zergling open a car door with its claws and went through the vehicle out the other side just to flank some Marines.

Shaking his trepidation off Yash regained his composer and pulled the pin of his last grenade toshing it amongst the others and running like hell back into the hallway to the stairs. One of a Hydralisk secondary heads looked down at the small bomb and flinched as everything went white. The one grenade caused a chainreaction of ten explosions blasting two Roaches and five Hydralisk into bloody mist and body parts.

It wasn't the end however as Yash heard more gun fire coming from the roof he mad a mad dash back up the stairs to aide his comrades and upon reaching the roof saw four Hydralisk hanging off the edge of the roof their secondary heads firing a barrage of spines at his squad who were pinned down behind a large row of air conditioners.

"Fuck me they 'can' climb!" Yash exclaimed as he grabbed his secondary weapon a M319 grenade launcher and fired. The grenade exploded in the face's of two of the Hydralisk knocking them off the edge but the other two were only stunned as the grenade exploded behind them, they quickly picked themselves up turning their attention to Private Yash.

"*uck!," Yash yelled as a flurry of spines flew at him as he dove over the edge of the roof.

Ten spines dug into Private Yash's armor just before he fell two stories, the CNT muscles of his BDU absorbed the shock force of the impact and shaken but alive he stood back up only to find he was face to face with a not ten feet from him Roach, after a moment of surprise from both of them the Roach lunged at Yash hoping to take a bit out of him. Yash jumped farther away prompley unloading his M319 into the Roach each blast of the grenades knocked the beast back and removed a part of its skull.

If it wasn't for his BDU private Yash would have died from the overpressure blasts and shrapnel from his own weapon. The last shot turned the Roaches brain into jelly as the final bit of protection was breached. Yash took a moment to breath and reload switching back to his rifle and shortly after meeting back up the rest of his squad who had taken care of the two Hydralisk. Yash and his squad continued their battle to clear the skyscraper along with the other Marines squads as the Battle's continued.

* * *

After two hundred years the human race was finally able fight on even ground against the unrestricted Zerg even if they were limited in the unit types they could use, however that could change at any moment should the leaders of the UNSC make even the smallest mistake. Battles of both small squad level and large battalion level raged across the city as both sides fought, the humans however had airsurpierority and used it to great effect as hundreds of Shortsword's released their cargo of laser and vibration guided bombs onto Zerg formations and strong points both on the surface and underground. These strong points were however constantly shifting and changing as the Zerg burrow from one place to another forcing the UNSC air-force to change their target areas while also making sure they don't drop any bombs on their own forces which was apart of the Zerg strategy to keep the humans air-forces occupied and less effective.

Still the battle was turning in the humans faver as little by little they pushed farther into New Alexandria.

* * *

A single controlled breath escaped Fran Chanté's mouth as she pulled the trigger of her M99 Stanchion electromagnetic Rifle which used the same technology in larger Mass Drivers like the Scorpions Railgun, orbital mass drivers that send cargo into space, and MAC cannons on warships, but on a greatly reduced scale. For many long decades the UNSC has tried to develop a infantry scale rail guns but the recoil, weight, size, and power requirements of such weapons have been the major barriers to miniaturizing the technology but in recent years the M99 rail gun sniper rifle also known as the Stanchion was completed and deployed in small numbers for testing by the army.

With a muffled sound the 5.4mm/.21 Caliber sabot round launched out of the barrel at 15,000 meters/second or 9.3 miles/second flying between skyscrapers, over a public garden and under a overpass in under a full second and slamming into the shoulder of a Hydralisk, on impact the tip of the round flattened imparting all of its energy into the target. The Hydralisk exploded as the round continued through it and into the leg of the Roach severing the legs lower half.

"Thats a kill," reported Amos Deon as he watched through his scope as the Zerg shreked and burrowed from the surprise attack.

"Thats makes twenty," Fran said as she took out her combat knife and marked her rifles barrel shroud crossing out five vertical marks with a line that was beside three other groups of such markings.

"Ok lets move to the next location," Amos said as he and his partner packed up their gear and moved out.

The two snipers silently made their way across the roof of the skyscraper and setup another sniper nest. They switched places this time as Amos took up his Stachion and sat in near the edge of the building and took aim below.

Looking through her binoculars Fran searched out more targets until hearing a call for help on the radio.

Static noise. ~This is squad 487 of the 10th battalion were requesting aide were pinned down on top of the Geico building in the east district city block seventy. We have taken casualties and have barricaded ourselves on the roof. I repeat-~ message repeats.

"Geico building east district city block seventy, wheres that?" Amos asked as Fran got out the E-map and did a search as its surface changed like a screen.

"It's a full five miles north of our position. Lots of building in the way," she replied.

"Dame," Amos cursed as Fran stood up and unfolded the wings of her glide pack.

"What are you doing? wait," Amos asked but it was too late as his partner jumped spreading out her bird like glider wings and activating the twin thrust vectoring mini-jet engines.

Fran flew like a bird riding the wind as the flight pack accelerated flexing its wings and thin graphene feathers as Fran flew between buildings disappearing from sight.

"*ucking stubborn little...sigh."

Amos had no choice now he had to follow his partner.

A dozen blocks away Fran landed in a roll on a balcony on the 57th floor of the hotel building her glider wings folding up and engine turning off as she raised her M-80 smg the modern version to the P-90. It was shaped the same but with updated look with a longer barrel and a 40mm MAL (multi ammo launcher) beneath it and fired FN 5.7×28mm caseless ammo from a horizontal magazine.

Fran walked farther into the apartment sweeping her smg side to side as Amos landed behind her. Fran glanced back to him as he looked at her with a annoyed stare as his glide wings folded. The pair of snipers continued their way up to the roof for a better angle of attack. Upon reaching the roof they set up their rifles quickly sighting in on the building the marines radio signal was coming from. It was difficult to see through the trees and foliage of the roof garden so they switched their sights to infrared mode seeing the heat signatures of twelve Marines on the roof seven of the marines looked injured and were laying down or braced up against something but most of them still had their rifles at the ready no doubt partly supported by their BDU's. The remaining five marines were near the only entrance to the roof shooting at the near constant stream of Zerglings and the odd Hydralisk pouring in.

Fran and Amos both took note of the distance, angle, wind resistance, direction and temperature and pulled their triggers sending two high velocity rounds screaming towards the Zerg.

"Will. To your left," yelled Sargeant Danse.

Private Will aimed to the left just as a Zergling was about to jump at him but in that instant it exploded gore and blood splattered on the privates face as the Zergling flopped to the ground.

One after the other the Zerg attacking the beleaguered troops exploded and fell dead as the hyper velocity rounds ripped through them. The marines thankful for the reinforcements took a more offensive stanch as they moved up little by little until one of them was inrange to use a HE grenade on the entrance. The source of the Zerg onslaught exploded and collapsed burying the entrance at least for a short time.

Knowing that was only a stop gap measure the Marines called on their radios again and this time a Pelican pilot responded. Shortly after a Pelican and a escourt of two Hornets circled over the building. The Pelican hovered close to the edge of the roof and turned around landing in a small open area. The Marines quickly moved their wounded into the dropship just as rubble started to give way the last man was in the Pelican when a Zergling burst out of the rubble making a beeline for the Pelican.

Fran was ready for this already slowing her breathing and calculating the trajectory, she pulled the trigger. The Zergling fell in pieces a large hole in its torso but was quickly replaced by another and another and more still. Both snipers fired until the Pelican had taken off and as the Zerg poured onto the roof the Hornets opend fire on them.

"Well that over with... Im out of ammo," Amos said.

"I got one Mag left. We better ask them for pick up as well."

After picking up the two snipers the Pelican and two Hornet's traveled back to the field base at Artamies tower. Hundreds of Vehicles and troops were still gathered their even after most of the army had deployed into the city and Hundreds of vehicles and aircraft were coming and going transporting troops and supplies to the front lines to maintain the momentum of their forces.

After his tank had taken a bad hit from a Baneling who had come from out of nowhere General Veeson was airlifted back to Artamies tower. As he exited his own Pelican he took a look around at the controlled chaos of all the men and vehicles moving around him and seeing another Pelican touch down in a landing zone nearby, two snipers and a large group of wounded Marines exiting the Dropship as the general sighed at the ever increasing casualties.

Quickly the General made his way to the command room on the 89 floor of the Artamies tower.

"What's the situation?!" the general asked in a hurried tone as he walked into the large rounded room packed with dozens of people all monitoring the battle to take the city and relaying orders to hundred of squads and battalions.

One of the operators sitting at his station gave the general a data slate displaying the Zerg Leviathan coming out from behind the darkside of Reach's moon's surrounded by a cloud of smaller Zerg bioforms.

"Sir it is expected that the fleet will engage the Zerg flagship again in two hours given its current speed," the man reported.

General Veesons face turned grim fearing if more zerg drop into the city then they may be overwhelmed. "What of the scouts I ordered to checkout the cities Underground?."

"The last we heard before they went radio silent was that they had entered the inner cities sewer tunnels."

"Hmm I see."

* * *

 **Near the Center of New Alexandria**

 **Underground Sewer tunnles**

 **Maintenance tunnel FH-78**

"Shit it smells in hear," Arthur exclaimed as he and his team trugged their way through the sewer tunnels.

"Bare with it were near the exit. Just a few dozen more meters," said Jeff as he aimed his rifle down a connecting tunnel they were passing.

A few minutes later the eight man special forces team exited the sewer tunnel entering into another tunnel of polycrete and neosteel, activated their octocamo stealth cloaks which were next to useless in the waist high sewer water. They continued through the winding maze of underground tunnels until coming upon a wall of organic chitin.

"Well it looks like this is it. Stand back." said Ashter as he pulled out a small block of explosive.

Smoke, dust and chitin flew through the tunnel as the small blast punched a hole in the wall and a wind flowed from the new hole.

"Aaaah that's even worse then the sewer!" Arthur exclaimed with a hand over his mouth and nose as a smell poured in from the organic construct.

The special forces team continued their way into the tunnel of hardened creep quickly and silently taking out any random patrolling Zerglings or Hydralisk they come across before they could raise a alarm eventually entering into a large chamber as big as a football field.

"Dame look at that!" Jeff said under his breath as he and his team hid behind a pile of rubble on a elevated ledge above the lower floor where scores of Zerg were gathered around a large 20 feet high, 30 feet long multi-legged structure with a mouth like opening from which more Zerg are arriving every few minutes.

"If I were to hazard a guess that thing is some kind of Zerg wormhole that connects to another solar system," Ashter thorized.

"Explaine's where the extra Zerg are coming from," Arthur said referring to the fact there are more Zerg in New Alexandria then what had dropped onto the planet from the Leviathan.

"We need to tell high command of his so they can bomb the hell of this place."

"Agreed but first we need to gather more information and see if there any more of these things are down here. If we miss one it will be a problem. Also I doubt our radios would work down here," Ashter stated.

From there Ashter split his team into two, one would warn high command of the existence of the Zerg portal and its location while the second team under his command will search for anymore of them.

Moving as silently and carefully as they could Sigma team traversed the tunnels dug out by the Zerg making sure that none of the Zerg noticed them under their stealth cloaks as they moved from one chamber to another eventually coming across a second portal. Ashter and Jeff planted timed explosives by the second portal and got the hell out of there but were discovered as they made their escape being forced to fight their way out of the underground tunnels.

As he and Jeff ran through the tunnels Ashters instinct's flared, sparks flew as he jumped out of the way his armor left with a triple cut marks from a Alpha Hydralisk.

"Ashter!?" Jeff called as he opened fire into the side of the Hydralisk.

The Alpha Hydralisk turned two of its smaller heads to Jeff sending eight pairs of spines into Jeffs armor the tips piercing flesh as he stumbled backwards.

"Come on!" Ashter yelled as he drew raised his rifle shooting into the Hydralisks main head and jaw the armor flaking of with every hit. Spines hit his shoulder and body armor but he ignored the pain.

The Hydralisk turned all of its attention to Ashter as the Marine's gun clicked on empty and he pulled his combat knife rolling in front of the Alpha Hydralisk and pierced the knife into the neck and pushed a button sending a surge of electricity stunning the Hydralisk if only for a short time.

Jeff recovered a bit and reloaded shooting again into the Alpha Hydralisks back. The Hydralisk shrieked in pain as Ashter pulled his knife out and he jumped back bringing out his M45 tactical shotgun and unloaded the twin tube magazine into the beast in triple bursts of flak coins made of neosteel, the scattering rounds bit into the Hydralisks head ripped it off piece by piece until it fell dead and headless.

"Ah lets get out of here" Ashter said as he reloaded.

"Yeah let beat it before another one comes along," Jeff replied.

By the time Ashter and Jeff made their way out the ground penetrating bunker-buster bombs had fallen and blasted the first portal to pieces along with a good chunk of the Zergs underground reserves of troops forcing the last remaining Zerg ground forces to make a final massive charge against the human forces resulting in a great loss of forces on both sides but by the end of the ten hours of fighting all of the Zerg forces on Reach were eliminated leaving only the space battle between the fleet of UNSC ships and the lone Leviathan.

* * *

 **Reach high orbit**

Fleet Admiral Theodor watched from the bridge of his ship as the massive Zerg bio-ship approached his reunified fleet who had recombined their might after the first fleet had returned after their successful Behemoth hunt. The now unified fleet with the Valkyrur spear at its center and the orbital Mac cannons all opened fire one the Leviathan as it entered into weapons range. A single azur beam combined with hundreds of red lasers cut trough space burning a hole into the psi-armor of the Leviathan quickly followed by scores of missiles and Mac rounds of varying sizes.

For a time the Leviathan did nothing but let itself be hit by the punishing barrage as it continued making its way to the humans fleet, struck again and again by the Valkof three times and each time its armor was pierced and each hole became the target of the other human ships. The Leviathan bared the pain as its wounds were opened even more by the storm of firepower directed at it but even the mighty Leviathan couldn't hold out for long but it had fulfilled its masters plan and reached the humans fleet.

All at once a cloud of hundreds of Scourges and Wyverns reached out from behind the Leviathan and swarmed the humans fleet as they fired back in a desperate bid to survive the cloud of death coming at them. In a quick act by the Fleet Admiral he ordered all of the Humans ships to retreat but in reality they were pulling the Zerg forces into a trap. Theodor gave the orders for his fleet to change formation into a half circle as they retreated. Their point defense lasers, Archer missiles and multi-linked railguns decimating the Scourges and Wyverns in the crossfire. After just a few minutes all of the Wyverns and Scourges were left as a giant cloud of broken and frozen pieces of flesh floating in space.

Having gotten out of that disaster Theodor realised that the Leviathan had disappeared in the confusion of the Scourges and Wyverns swarming attack.

A week passed since the Zerg attack and everyone all over Reach worked to pick up the pieces. New Alexandria was a center of with activity as building contractors from all over Reach worked to put the ruined city back together along with the people who returned to their devastated city.

The UNSC navy also worked to rebuild their fleet after losing so many ships and personnel but received aid from Mars in the form of a fleet of three dozen transports with personnel and materials escorted by two dozen Marmota class ships.

However these ships were the mass produced version and there for lacked the Valkof cannon which was not only extremely expensive to manufacture but also took at least six months to build even with modern technology and understanding of Ragnit/Khaydarin crystal's, but were instead equipped with a massive plasma beam cannon called the Yamato named after Hanzo Yamato who was the lead engineer on the construction project for the fusion powered plasma weapon which was the first of its kind and size.

These new ships along with the new antigravity tech that was another staple of their design became more popular amongst the UNSC high command for their capabilities and firepower but were still just flying gun plateformes and warn't that versatile which lead to a new project leading to the construction of larger cruisers type ships like the-.

Vanguard class Cruiser

Length 1000 meters Width 309 meters Highet 400 meters

Crew 1052

Infantry capacity 2000

Cargo capacity 708 tone's

Max Speed 1.2 light seconds a hour

Armements 30/50 shot Archer missile pods. One ventral Mac cannon. Eight twin linked Mac cannon turrets. 10 Shiva class fusion missile tubs.

Point defense turrets, 20 twin linked laser turret's. 30 quad linked railgun turret's.

One hanger deck with 10 Pelican mk4 dropships, 20 Longswords.

New and larger vessels like the Vanguard class cruiser were made possible by the the public opinion that shifted after the Zerg attack on Reach. Governments of both the Epsilon Eridani system and Sol found it easier to push for the construction of fleets of the new ships while anti gravity tech tested on the Valkyrur spear allowed such ships to be sent back and forth through the Warpgate and their construction docks to be placed in orbit after being built on the planet's surface then sent to orbit. As the money and materials needed to build such massive ships and their construction docks became cheaper the fleets of humanity grew.

The anti-gravity tech also allowed such ships to operate and leave a planets atmosphere and even allowed a boost to the transportation business by upping the size of transport shuttles and craft while maintaining their reliability and cost of construction and best of all allowed transport shuttles to go from Earth to Reach non stop without the passengers needing to switch to a special re-entry shuttles.

The students of Aliasse were also getting back to their lives.

The twins Allen and James returned to their Family farm and started using their powers to help out around the place making golems of stone and dirt to help plow the fields while also blowing up tree roots and reshaping the land itself for new crops to grow. The two brothers also started a puppet play to entertain the community and afterwards many people in the local community seeing this and hearing how the boys family was better off started hairing the two boys to help them on their farms as well.

Kaelea started focusing more on her schooling and eventually went to collage becoming a surgeon secretly using her Telekinesis to cut flesh and hold blood vessels closed. She was able to complete her work in a fraction of the time other surgeons could even robots could only barely match the speed, control and safety that Kaelea showed. She also kept in regular contact with Kevin.

Fabricia became a computer and AI engineer and made many breakthrough's in such fields of research even developing a new generation of Riemann Matrix for Smart AI's which could grow beyond its base limitations giving them a much longer lifespan past 7 years to as long as 50. Fabricia made quite a lot of money from her design's and ended up forming her own company which included gaming and media work, her company also worked closely with Horizon corp. However do to her experience with ONI she never took any military or government contracts staying in the private sector.

Dannie learned about his fathers connection to the Zerg and was of course furies but after calming down he refocused on his own life. After graduating he became a freelance detective working closely with the police to find criminal's and upholding the law. He gained quite the reputation as both a expert at finding information on criminals activities and aprehinding them, both with and without his psionic powers and like the others he did his best to keep his psionic powers hidden from everyone around him. And after his father retired from Horizon Dannie eventually started repairing his relationship with him.

Kevin served in the UNSC navy for eight years getting a degree in both aeronautics and engineering plus his pilot's license. He also built up a large savings account from saving most of his money which he used to buy a house and a wedding ring for Kaelea. Aliasse, Fabricia, Allan, James and Dannie all attended the wedding and the two of them lived a long and happy life together having four children.

Aliasse keps up her contact with her students from time to time but as time moves on they grew farther apart living their own lives getting married and having kid's and growing old. Aliasse stepped down from her position as the Observer of Reach in 2215 and returned to her home country of Gallia on Earth, spending her now free time in her old family cabin in the Barious forest and from time to time exploring the Xel'naga/Forerunner ruins.

 **Chapter end**


	7. Chapter 7

Starcraft is the property of Blizzard

Halo is the property of Microsoft

RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth

Ok we're getting back to Ellen and her swarm and then the story will move to Remnant and there will be some time skips here and there like showing how the Spartan program changes because of the Zerg and how Humanity reaches the Koprulu sector.

Also the near end of this chapter has spoiler's for the RWBY series if you haven't seen Volume 6 episode 3 yet.

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 **Planning makes everything**

* * *

 **Epsilon Eridani system.**

 **High orbit, Reach**

The darkness of space twinkled with star light as he chaotic fleet battle over Reach reached its end.

Ellen flew up through sky higher and higher into the void added by her Praetorian symbiote armor and its evolved wings and tail fins, soon enough she saw hundreds of laser beams flashing through space as Archer missiles detonated against the cloud of Wyverns and scourges. UNSC fleet ships detonated here and there as Ellen felt her zerg dying by the dozens as the humans fight for their lives and those on the surface of Reach.

Ellen sensed a power full psionic source but unlike the many Zerg dying in the battle this source lacked a soul but was still powerful. Ellen turned her attention to the lone Marmota class ship in the fleet, the Valkyrur,s spear and smiled at the ship which she had plans for or rather the class of ship.

"Everything's going as planned," Ellen thought to herself as she turned back to her current objective of getting back to the Leviathan and accelerated away with a flap of her wings.

The organic armored hanger door closed behind Ellen creating a air tight seal and with a quickened pace Ellen made her way through the maze of living hallways to the bio-ships nerve center where Navash and Niadra turned to greet their empress.

"I'm are overjoyed at your safe return Empress," Niadra greeted with a respectful bow.

"We were worried the humans ships would spot you my empress," said Navash who had bowed along with younger her sister.

"Were done here. Warp to Swarm fleet Prime," Ellen commanded as she commanded the creep to form into a chair and took a seat.

Navash sent the command to the leviathan and it started the process of opening a warp gate through a pocket dimension wormhole leading back to the current location of Ellen's swarm fleet.

Ellen felt a little drained from the trip from Reach, it was a chore to keep a little bubble of air filled aura around her as she flew through space while also supercharging the psionic propulsion abilities of her Praetorian armor which was evolved by Abastein after the experiments aimed at creating a space superiority breed (the Wyvern) were completed.

"Flying through space like that is taxing," Ellen mumbled to herself as she crossed her armored legs and rested her head upon the chitin knuckles of her left hand as the warpgate to the wormhole opened.

The Leviathan entered the warpgate and after a short trip through the spiraling vortex of energy they exited the other end to a new star system far away from Reach.

* * *

 **Galactic south west**

 **Unknown star system**

 **12,000, kilometers from rocky planet**

The Leviathan arrived in a nameless star-system and moved towards the nearby planet now a shade of purple from the creep that completely covered the world leeching its minerals along with a army of millions of Drones and Heavy Drones all slowly dismantling the planet's crust.

Over head in high orbit Swarm fleet Prime flew orbiting the planet while receiving a constant stream of Overlords and Harbingers going back and forth from the fleet and the planet.

The process of harvesting a whole worlds resource's was a labor intensive process that took a long time. Normaly Ellen would never think of striping a planet of all its resources but this planet was and would always be a dead lifeless rock at least not without moving it to new orbit in the stars green zone followed by serious terraforming, both of which were currently beyond the abilities of Ellen's swarm at the moment. But Ellen always had the evolution masters evolving the swarm and developing new biological powers and psionic abilities most of which never left the evolution pits as most were either too weak or were not useful. The rejects being recycled and their biomass reused.

One of the projects Ellen has Abastein working on was a new Zerg breed specialized in large scale mining based on the Nydus worm and Behemoth which can process a massive amounts of soil or asteroids and converting them into biomass, however the scale of the project has caused it too stall as the larger a orgasim gets the more its biology needs to be adapted to fit its own mass and the addition of internal processing organs based on the Digester only made it more complicated.

The star system it-self was nothing too interesting considering the hundreds of others the swarm had been to before. It only had four planets two gas giants and two rocky planets both uninhabitable dirt balls which were too close or too far from the local star to have liquid water on their surface. But both planets still had valuable mineral's along with the asteroid belt which was three times the size of the one in the Sole system and were probably from failed planets that didn't form properly or collided when this star system was still young. Either way this star system had little of interest other than being a place to mine for resources.

All to fuel and grow the three massive swarm fleets that orbited around the two planets, the two smaller fleets Beta and Gamma commanded by the first two brood queens Zavara and Nakool each numbering in the hundreds of thousands and the Prime swarm fleet directly commanded by Empress Ellen was even bigger.

For the past two hundred years Ellen's swarm fleets have wandered the galaxy evolving through experimentation by evolution masters and regulated combat between the broods much like the roman empire did in their colosseums only the Zerg's version serves a useful and constructive purpose. The Zerg arenas were also where the Brood queens and even the empress battled to display their power, abilities and leadership skills through small or large scale battles.

The fights had rules however as, to the death battles between Brood queens were not permitted as this would weaken the swarms leadership and be self destructive. However many of the lesser non-self-aware Zerg died in droves in these battles between Broods which can range from single combat to a small war between thousands or a single or team of brood queens fighting against a small army of lesser zerg to test and display their skills of leadership over their army's and their individual combat prowess in battle to their sister brood queens.

However to the victor go the spoils as, the highest ranked and consistently winning Brood queens in both single combat and army battles become the highest ranked leaders of the swarm.

Out of the now one thousand Brood queens in the swarm Nakool and Zavara remaine's the strongest earning the titles of right and left hands of the empress with, Navash and Kilysa being under Zavaras command and Niadra and Inkarra under Nakools leadership, with each of them having many other brood queens under their command. Normal zerg queens still serve as the bottom of the swarms command chain but are also the basis for it as all brood queens were originally a basic queen to begin with.

Seeing the need for specialized combat forces Ellen also had her swarms smaller broods split into three types, space fleets,(Behemoths, Leviathan's,) and ground army,s (all ground breeds) and air forces (All flying Zerg excluding the above) who's numbers can range from a few dozen to hundreds to thousands and tens of thousands, with the largest broods numbering million's, the higher the Brood queens rank the larger the forces under her command.

Ellen also had those Brood queens that have a greater skill for single combat over leadership placed into the Zerg equivalent of special forces squads where only the best of the best gather. These groups of elite zerg almost always consist entirely of Brood queens, Hunter-Killers, Zergling Hunters, Hydralisk Predators and Phantoms with other zerg breeds as support as needed. These groups of elite fighters while tiny compared to the rest of the swarm are the single strongest groups of fighters, able to fight on equal ground against a force ten times their size and win.

In doing this Ellen made her Swarm into a strongly organized force with experienced leaders and fighters while also creating something of a culture for the Swarm although for Ellen it would be a cold day in hell when Zerg develop into a society like what Humans have, although Protoss are not as bad, at least from what Ellen could gather from talking with them.

Ellen's Leviathan passed through hive fleet Prime as millions of Zerg of many shapes and sizes parted and flowed around them some of the first generation and others of the second generation all instinctively recognising the presence of their Empress. After a short while they neared the central mass of swarm fleet prime a massive space platform.

Ellen knew that her swarm would eventually meet the Overmind's swarm and not wanting her swarms best essence to be taken she split her swarm into two classes. The first generation from the war on Earth two hundred years ago and the second evolved generation.

The first gen being the zerg used in the attack on Reach with the exception of the Leviathan, Wyvern and the experimental Maw of the Swarm structure which was Ellen's attempt to replicate the Protoss gateway using the Zerg form of FTL. All three of which were sent to Reach to be field tested in a real war and to get date for the evolution masters to improve them with.

The massive space platform, fifteen miles across, five miles thick, at the center of Swarm fleet Prime served as Ellen's de facto capital. The massive biostation was built using the original Zerg space platform as a base with new layers being built over it over time.

The shape of the station consisted of three black colored saucers stacked on top of each other with a purple layer on the top and bottom. The top and bottom of the station had a large dome surrounded by six inward curving spike like structures. The whole of the structure was covered in hundreds of spine guns and Glaive launchers and the edges of top and bottom layers were dotted with coiled up or extended tentacles that served as docking arms for Behemoths and Leviathans. The areas in and between the saucers shaped partes of the station had hundreds of small hangers and a few dozen larger ones all packed with Wyverns, Scourges, Harbingers and all manner of flying Zerg.

As the Leviathan neared the station a long tentacle unrolled itself and extended five long grasping claws from its tip which clasped onto the top and sides of the Leviathan's head as the bioship extended its own Nydus worms and docked with the station.

Ellen with Navash, Niadra and the Evolution masters exited the Leviathan all going their separate ways. The Evolution masters returned to one of the many Evolution pits to continue their experiments from the data they got from the battles against the humans.

Niadra and Navash returned to their own Behemoths also docked along the Station. Ellen her selfe walked the massive halls of the station which were seemingly empty but for a few Queens and Brood queens all of whom bowed to their Empress as she passed by.

Ellen gave nod to her servent's as she continued on her way through the station.

The truth was that most of the Zerg on the station were in hibernation pods. The station had hundreds of large rooms spread throughout it each filled many thousands of these pods all linking the Zerg into a massive psionic-network of organic computers that generated a virtual world (like the Matrix from that movie). Its purpose at first was to simulate combat environment's of different types for all Zerg breeds to train in, allowing them to gain combat experience.

But as time went on and more intelligent Brood queens joined the swarm Ellen added a layer to the virtual world modeled after a fantasy world which wouldn't be out of place compared to World of Warcraft or any other MMORPG.

It was in this world the Zerg would collectively rest while also being awake and exploring this artificial world which Ellen and Izsha and Abastein worked to build together. Ellen had planned for this organic virtual world to be a place of rest and education for Brood queens in the long stretch's of time between attacking other species since lesser Zerg breeds are biologically unable to feel bored. But Queens and Brood queens because of their intelligence can feel a sense of boredom which could lead to problems without a proper outlet. Which was another reason Ellen started the Arena combat and Swarm ranking system but that has its limitations and Ellen didn't what her Swarm to be lead by warmongers but to strike a balance between creative and destructive thoughts.

So Ellen had a world building system put into her Swarms virtual reality rather like Minecraft only with the option to be in realistic hi-res 3d or block form plus with far more options that allowed the creation of whole worlds and enviroment's the limits of which were only in the minds of the Brood queens.

Within this virtual worlds a galaxy of thousands of worlds were created by the Brood queens and even surprisingly by Abastein and the other evolution master's who used the system for running simulations of their creations and experiments increasing the efficiency of their work as the psionic hive mind combined with the virtual world system allowed them to create and test new breeds of Zerg without ever wasting the time creating a real flesh and blood creature that may or may not be viable.

As she walked deeper into the station Ellen approached a large transport hub room containing six Nydus hub's that linked with the others placed at the six corners and upper and lower levels of the station. But as she entered Ellen stopped thinking for a moment. "I should give Abastein a visit first."

Diverting from her original destination Ellen took another Nydus hub to another level and a different sector of the station. After a short trip through the slimy organic tunnel's she arrived at another Nydus hub on a lower level and deeper in the station. After walking through more chitin and creep covered tunnels Ellen arrived at Abasteins evolution pit for his personal use.

As she entered the chamber Ellen swepped her head side to side looking for the Prime evolution master nonchalantly walking past and ignoring the hundreds of Humans which had been taken from Reach through the Maw of the Swarm and placed in chitin prison cells or stuck into the walls or floating unconsciously in liquid filled semi-transparent cocoons.

All of them mutated into grotesque forms with tentacles for arms and insect like exoskeletons covering their bodies and others looked human but had multiple sets of arms and eyes or other mutations that made them look more Zerg then human. Those that were dead were being hulled off by Drones taking them to digesting pits to be recycled. All of the living mutantes were moaning in discomfort or pain, but as they saw Ellen they all seemed to change pitch and tone making angry growling noises. One lashing out through the bars of her cell with her long triple tentacle arm only to have them sliced off by a slashing sweep of Ellen's wings.

Ellen continued through the giant chamber at least as big as a football field passing hundreds of cells and cocoons.

For the past two hundred years Ellen has had Abastein and the other evolutions masters enhance the basic biology of their swarm breeds from the base up as part of project Chimera, although doing this for every Zerg breed would take a long time however Ellen and her swarm had such after leaving Earth. Still It took a few years to go through the complete process of developing testing and refining every improvement to every individual breed and structure.

The 2nd gen version of the Drones and Heavy Drones were a lot faster digging as their claws and mandibles were reinforced by psi-armor and also had better control over their movement which made moving in cramped condition's (which were common in the mines)a lot easier.

2nd gen Zerglings could now spawn in groups of three from each Larve and takes only 7% longer to grow and hatch. The Larva could also be ordered to morph directly into a single alpha Zergling, it's armor and regeneration much improved thanks to Roach essence and without any loss to their speed and mobility.

The new generation of Hydralisk like most other 2nd gen Zerg (except for the Zergling) could now use the psi-armor ability to make themselves far more durable for a short period of time. This also affected their melee scythes and could also be infused it into their ranged spine attacks (like a Wyvern) making them much more devastating to shields and armor. 2nd gen Hydralisks could also now climb up vertical surfaces thanks to essence from Gekkos.

First generation Hydralisk also received this evolution.

Second gen of Roach's were upgraded into a heavy attacker with the adding of two pods on to their back which fired bio-grenades. The grenades had a layered design of a new organic high explosive crystal that was far more powerful than C4 (which Glaives, Scourges and explosive spines also had) at its core and around that was a improved super acid gel that had two non-reacting membrane sub layers containing it. The third layer was a dense chitin shrapnel array that was just below the smoothe black outer shell which had four spiral groves along it that made the Roach grenade spin in the air giving them more aerodynamic control and far greater range than the acid spray.

The second gen Banelings had a evolution that Ellen mused over during the first Zerg war on Earth but decided against developing at the time because she thought it was to OP for the time. It consisted of giving Banlings essence from Porcupines and improving the quills to the level of Hydralisk spines and making two types, one a layer of smaller three inch long spines that covered the Baneling, and a second layer of ten inch spines. All of them would be launched out in all directions when the Baneling detonated. The spines were frother improved by adding essence from 2nd gen Roach's that made the spines explosive doubling the Banelings damage.

2nd gen Impalers were given four twin linked explosive spine guns on the new wide hammerhead shaped head with the tail glaive launchers replaced by two oval shaped glaive pod launchers on its back.

2nd gen Overlords and Overseers, also got stealth camo skin from phantoms to make them less of targets and better at recon.

2nd gen Harbingers had a improved shape and design that was more aerodynamic but mostly looked the same but the tower like Glaive launchers were replaced by Glaive launcher pods that full filed the same function. Dozens of quad-linked spine launchers for point defense were also added.

2nd gen Mutalisks were also improved with the addition of a second pair wings that increased their speed and maneuverability and a pair of micro-glaive launcher pods were added to their back like a Wyvern but such weapon was actually tested on the Mutalisk first then given to the Wyvern in its completed form. The 2nd gen Mutalisk was mainly replaced as a air to air fighter by the Wyvern but was repurposed as a air to ground or space light support bomber.

The BroodLord and its two lesser versions were mostly the same except for the psi-armor, larger glaive and micro glaive launchers.

The 2nd gen Behemoth had better shaped overlapping armor plating with impact resistant gel layers that provided improved covedge between and under the armor. They also had longer bodies now a standard six hundred meters long giving them more room for everything including weapon's now consisting of four heavy double linked anti-ship class guided spine guns extending out and pointing forwards from the sides of the nydus worm shaped head, with sixteen other turreted double linked medium spine guns eight on the back and belly along with 22 light quad linked anti-fighter spine guns all of them firing the new guided psi-armor piercing spines. And placed at the upper and lower corners of the new Behemoths head and above the four Nydus worms along the sides and at either side of the base of the tail were the Glaive launch tubes which were the Zerg standardized counter parts to the UNSC Archer missiles.

Other improvement's to elite zerg breeds like the Hunter elite (Zergling), Predator elite (Hydralisk), Hunter-Killer, Phantom and Queens included the use of level one psi-armor which has also been improved to have three levels each double to triple the strength of the previous level. However such ability requires a great amount of psionic power restricting it to only those breeds or individuals with a sufficient amount of psionic energy. Queens and Brood Queens have also gained the ability to infuse psionic energy into other breeds close to them allowing them to use psi-armor level one or two for a short time. Queens and Brood queens can also use a new organ based from the Roach to spray a green liquid onto other wounded Zerg accelerating their healing and getting them back into the fight quicker.

Sensing his presence Ellen followed the evolutions masters psionic trail through the forest of cocoons until finding Abastein working on a large cocoon bigger than the others surrounded by six Hunter-Killers guarding him.

"Abastein. A moment of your time."

"My empress," Abastein replied as he turned to face Ellen his empress.

"Abastein how'd the test of the Maw of the Swarm work out on your end?" Ellen asked.

Ellen had sent three out of the four prototypes of the Maw of the Swarm to Reach. One remained on the Leviathan while the other two were sent down to the surface with the invasion force. One would link to the Maw of the Swarm in the Leviathan and the other would connect to the forth prototype aboard the Zerg space station capital which is how the humans being experimented on got there.

"Sufficient. But can be improved."

"Hmm, What of the Wyvern?"

"Wyverns performed well. No defects found."

"And the Leviathan?"

"Leviathan functionality within acceptable parameters. Still requires improvement however. Still slow. Also. Suggest placing Maw of Swarm in all Leviathans."

"Your right it would make the best use out of them both," Ellen mused as she crossed her armored arms before taking a greater interest in the giant cocoon.

"So whats this then," Ellen asked gesturing at the Cocoon.

"New Breed. Can infest enemy's of Swam."

"Interesting I suppose that's why all the humans in your lab are are mutated. Is it ready to hatch."

"Correct,"Abastein answered sending a mental signal to the cocoon.

After a few moments the giant cocoon split apart reveling a dark colored tank sized ten legged fat grub with dark overlapping chitin plating that had six glaive crawler like growths on its back with a exposed fleshy rear that looked like it contained something, but the weirdest thing about it was its head which looked like it had a eight tentacled squid for a face.

"Ok..." Ellen said examining the creature as it blinked its eyes for the first time getting used to the outside world.

"Infester. Special bio-weapon. Can fire virophage Glaives capable of delivering Zerg virus and catalyst that convert host organizem into disposable minion. Can also deliver parasites to take over and control host organizem," Abastein answered as the possibilities ran through Ellen's mind.

"That could be useful. Can it take over technology."

"...Possible!?. Will conduct test in future."

After having her talk with Abastein and seeing the new prototype Zerg breed Ellen traveled to her real destination, her personal quarters near the upper core of the station.

As Ellen entered the massive open chamber the light of a artificial blue sky shown on her, dotted with clouds and one bright sun like spot positioned at the apex of the four mile wide dome.

Although the artificial sky was much inferior to the Xel'naga,Forerunner version under Menachite mountain.

Ellen walked across the green grass surrounded by forested trees as she made her way to the center of the room where her dome shaped house lied, surrounded by two gardens, one of flowers the other of vegetables with its own self irrigation system. And taking up most of the dome was the crescent shaped forest consisting of many plants and trees complete with some turkeys, squirrels, a dozen species of insects and some other small animals, and behind the house was a small lake with a half dozen kinds of fish, some species made by Ellen herself in the evolution pit for both fun and food, all of this created as a slice of home to remind Ellen of where she comes from, a anchor if you will that holds the Swarm Empresses mind in balance over the long term.

Ellen had created this house to serve as a private place of rest for herself and It was off limits to everyone except the highest ranked Zerg such as Nakool, Zavara, Abastein and Izsha.

Ellen entered the two story dome house covered in flowering vines that showed only a little of the dark purple of the chitin structure beneath. Sensing their master arrive bio luminescent lights slowly warmed on brightening the room as she took the Praetorian armor off.

It moved to a thick layered creep bed by a wall in the main room where a hydrogen fire burned in a heat resistant chitin stove. Ellen then made her way to the bathroom where she took a long soothing bath in hot water warmed by a bio-electric generator set in the wall. After soaking for a hour Ellen got out drying herself off with a fur towle, she then went to the kitchen and fixed herself up a sandwich made with the vegetables from her own garden and meat from the animals in her small forest. Then making her way to the main room to relax a bit.

 _"Welcome home."_

Ellen flinched spinning around at the unexpected words in her private chamber. "Izsha!. I thought I told you to never try and jump scare me with that psi-stealth unit"

Izsha turned a page of her book ignoring Ellens complant's.

"I see your back from your trip," the tentacled haired woman said as she flipped the page of a book as she sat in a long reclining couch of chitin and creep, the soft light of the bio-orbs just starting to illuminate her.

"Sitting in the dark again I see," Ellen quipped as she sat down on another bio chair feeling its surface warm on her exposed skin.

"And you still can't see in the pitch dark. Still a little worried that changing your essence to much will cause you to loose your psionic powers," Izsha replied in a questioning tone.

Ellen gave a sigh as she crossed her legs taking a bit out of her sandwich, chewing and swallowing before replying. "Yeah its risky. I don't want to make to many changes my body when it's not necessary."

Izsha turned the page of her book again. "That's understandable but you haven't gone through any evolutions in almost two hundred years. Not since devouring Azrumaths psionic essence and then gaining a new organ to process water into hydrogen from the Extractor's essence."

Ellen tapped her finger on the soft leather like skin of the chair. "True... it's just I don't feel the need to evolve anymore at the moment."

"And I feel as though you will be like this until we run into the Overminds swarm," Izsha stated as she slammed the book closed with a thwomp.

"I know, I know. The Overmind and his swarm is a major threat because they can steal our psionic evolutions and become our equal. That's why I kept the older generation of my swarm so we can fight without risking our more advanced abilities falling into enemy hands. However if the time line goes as I had predicted I'll be able to kill the Overmind and devour his essence before we even begin a open war with his swarm," Ellen said as she munched on her sandwich some more.

Izsha made a telling humming before standing, up and facing her original self and Empress. "Still banking on the timeline being like it was in the games," Izsha said sounding somewhat annoyed as she had always been the more pragmatic of the two.

"I don't expect everything to be the same but... it is a possibility," Ellen replied turning her head to her other self the two of them sharing a look before being interrupted.

 **"My Empress I have returned,"** Solus projected as he had just warped back from his mission.

 **"Did you find it?"** Ellen inquired as she shifted the psionic communication to a private link.

 **"Yes. The world was just as you had described, populated by the creature's you called Grimm along with humans and their sub species Faunus. Even the moon was shattered like you said it would be,"** Solus reported.

Ellen smiled quickly running through her planned timeline of events and list of plans. Ellen had learned about the existence of Remnant from Azrumath after devouring his psionic essence and parts of his memories, but it took a few years for Ellen to run through all the fragmented memories and recognize the shattered moon and Grimm as being from the RWBY series.

However Ellen and everyone else who liked the animated series only ever got to see the first three volumes because of a tragic event. Monty oum the creator of the RWBY series died during a medical procedure. (Rest in peace Monty) This combined with the fact that Grimm... at least somewhat resemble Zerg, which caused some moron politician's and others in the media industry to call for the series to be dropped because of bad memories from the war.

Had Monty lived the series may have continued.

 **"Solus when you return to observe Remnant take Yutorra, Racorra, Numorra, with you and-"**

Izsha watched as Ellen continued her private mental conversation with Solus wondering what it was he found. Ellen has her plans and strategy's but some she keeps hidden even from Izsha which irkes her to no end. "Ellen has Solus found something?" Izsha asked.

Ellen ended the conversation and finally responded to Izsha.

"Yes... something important, I'll tell you about it some day," Ellen replied as Izsha gave a dissatisfied sigh.

* * *

 **Unknown star system**

 **World,** Remnant

The warp gate closed behind him as Solus turned towards the nearby world his empress had plans for.

The Solus had evolved to have all the same enhancements of the second generation of Behemoths and accelerated faster then his old self ever could, quickly entering orbit over the planet, the shattered moon rising above the planets horizon stretched out before him.

Solus orbited around the planet until reaching the side where the Dragon shaped continent lay, entering into the atmosphere like a blazing asteroid his level three psi-armor easelly taking the high velocity friction heat created against the atmosphere.

The psi-armor of Ellen's zerg is the first wide spread psionic power granted to them from Ellen and her essence and it has been further evolved by Abastein and the other Evolution masters to reach three levels each twice as powerful then the last, however only the newest and elite Zerg breeds have been evolved to be able to use the ability at its second and third levels, which also requires much more energy and stamina which would hinder the function of the lesser Zerg breeds. And even then only the Brood queens, Behemoths and Leviathans can reach level three unassisted do to its energy requirements.

Solus leveled out reorienting his nose parallel to the ground and flying back and forth across the continent mapping the tarren. The Dragon continent regions to the south and east were a mix of mountains and forests and rivers with most of the Dragons body, neck and head in the north center and north-west being desert, while the northern-most islands that make up the wings were mostly of a winter environment while the eastern most peninsula that made the dragon's tail had a subtropical climate that changed into a arriad desert as it connected with the dragons body.

There were some walled towns of humans and Faunas that constantly fought against the tied of Grimm that never relented in harassing them. Dotting the continent here and there most in the south and east were settlements of varying sizes.

Solus mapped the continents terran in detail making a note to remember the locations of the settlements before finding a place to land in the mostly uninhabited desert region in the center of the dragons body a few dozen miles inland from the dragons chest which was not even populated by many Grimm. Solus landed amongst the sand, dunes and wind weathered stone monoliths and used his burrow ability to bury himself mostly underground and after word sent the three brood queens put under his command to work scouting the surrounding region in more detail along with Mutalisk and Overseers while a army of Drones and Heavy Drones dug a underground tunnel network.

Within a few days a small network of tunnels were excavated along with a small Hive cluster consisting of a Swarm crawler two Hatchery's four Spawning pools and Hydralisk den and a Digester processing the minerals from the deserts deep under-soil. In three weeks some underground aquifers were found with five small caverns hollowed out around them, each with a pair of Extractors, while the first Hatchery morphed into a Lair and doubled in size with some Roach warrens and a Queens nest.

Four months after Solus arrived Zerg and Grimm conflicts began as the mindless beasts and their older and slightly less dumb and older alphes started noticing the presence of a new intruder in their domain. The fights were mostly one sided as the Grimm are not only weaker but lack any real coordination or sense of tactics.

The tunnel network had also been expanded to cover ten kilometers with three levels, upper, middle and lower, each with a dozen hive clusters with the first's Lair morphing into a Hive. The underground network was also finally connected to the ocean providing the hive with a unlimited amount of Hydrogen.

While Solus built up the Zerg presence on the Continent he had Racorra, Numorra and Yutorra capture some Grimm, Humans and Faunus living on the continent for experimentation. Those captured were cloned and the originals returned to their homes with all of their memories of the event erased.

Ellen had ordered Solus to take samples but not to interfere with the lives of those on the planet at least not until a certain point. Although Ellen did give Solus some leeway to make his own decisions as events requiere.

* * *

 **South Eastern Dragon continent**

 **Forested region**

Duke ran on at top speed his golden beard and hair flowing in the wind like a lions mane as he leaped up and over a large rock, then darting through the trees, taking a split second to glance back at the five Grimm Beowolfs keeping stride with him. Luckley Duke knew this forest like the back of his hand, it was where his father had taught him how to hunt and how to avoid and if need be fight the Grimm that also called it home, like his father, grandfather and great grandfather before him.

That's how he knew the perfect location to bait the Grimm into a trap.

Reaching a small but deep gully Duke jumped in knowing this time of year it was dry. He ran down the dry stream bed until coming to a split in the path, but instead of taking one of the two paths he took a split second to crouch and with his semblance boosting his strength he leaped up and over the gully's edge just as the Beowolf Grimm clawed the air where he had been but a split second ago cutting but a few hairs off Dukes tail.

"Come on come get me," Duke yelled down at the Beowolfs.

One of the Grimm leaped up onto the gully wall attempting to climb only to be nailed in the spin by a arrow from a wolf girl on the other side of the Gully and dropping dead. Another of the black furred Grimm rored as it leaped onto the corpse of it's for more ally and spring boarded up onto the gully edge but Duke was not having any of that and as soon as the grimm reached him Duke roundhouse kicked the Grimm in the chest knocking it unceremoniously back into the gully where it and the other two Beowolfs were showered with more arrows from the dozen other Faunus rangers firing their bows. In mere moments the Grimm lay blooded and dead their bodies slowly dissolving into a black goo as Duke leaped across the gully rejoining his fellow rangers.

"Good job as always being bait Duke, your the best at it," joked Lav as he smacked Duke on the back.

"Thanks Lav..." Duke replied with a little eye roll.

The lavender haired cat man who was quit full of him selfe and completely convinced all the girls wanted him but he was a good planner and leader and something of a childhood friend of Dukes along with Tealle the wolf girl who silently walked upon them without a noise

The rangers hunted food for the village and protected it from Grimm which was why it was necessary to hunt down any Grimm that get too close to the Village or when their numbers get to high.

"Tealle. Excellent shooting as always," Duke complemented as the shy wolf girl simply nodded her lower face covered by her cloak's neck cover.

"It looks close to sun down so lets get back to the village before any more of them show up," said Lav as every one sauntered off through the forest.

The sun had dropped below the Dradson mountain range by the time the Ranger squad returned and as they approached, the guards in the towers recognised them and waved the gates open.

The inside of the village was quit large for being in the middle of nowhere far away from most other settlements.

The town began small, no bigger than a football field when the first settlers arrived but after a few decades it expanded to four times that size all thanks to the nearby fresh water river named the Alcon which the village was built beside and the food it and the forest provided. The Grimm population was lesser then surrounding areas because of how isolated the valley was.

The town it's selfe was shaped like a cluster of four circles of stone and wood logs close together, each circle was split into four sections by four intersecting roads and if it wasn't for the stone and tree log walls that surrounded it, the village wouldn't look out of place from the wild west of the 1890's on Earth with the exception of the swords and bows with steel tipped arrows and other melee weapons.

Duke and the other rangers following procedure returned to their ranger guild hall to report their mission a success.

The front door opened and the ranger squad entered most splitting up and going to the bar off to the side getting some drinks and food while the senior members reported to the rangers boss in his second floor office.

"Lav, Duke Tealle, good work on another Grimm hunt. Keep this up and we may cut the black furred devils population in half," roared the big muscular bull Faunus Bron in a jovial tone, his horns swaying as he chuckled.

"I don't think that will be possible unless we find out how and where they breed," Duke replied half heartedly, rubbing the back of his neck, feeling a strange marke like a scar but Duke doesn't remember being hurt before.

Lav turned to him. "No need to be so negative Duke. We have culled their numbers quit a bit in the last year. And without loosing a single ranger thanks to me."

Duke rolled his eyes ignoring the man's high self-assurance of himself, it wasn't worth the argument.

"Well pushing the Grimm out of the valley my be a reality soon thanks to this," Bron said standing up and lifting a single edged axe up from behind his desk and holding it out.

"My axe, what did the smith do to it?" Duke exclaimed as he took the weapon looking over the formally double bladed axe and started regretted giving it to the smith after it got a crack in one of its blades after being used to behead a Boarbatusk a day ago. Or at least Duke remembers it being a Boarbatusk, the memory seems a little hazy for it to be from just a day a ago yet it seems as fresh as any other memory.

The now one bladed axe was modified to have a oversized revolver cylinder integrated into the three foot long handle just below a reinforcing structure and gunbarrel integrated behind the blade.

"Now don't have a fit Duke. I know that your axe is a family heirloom but it was better than replacing it altogether. That blade was cracked pretty bad."

"What are those colored crystals," Lav asked as he and Tealle eyed the modified weapon.

"Those are Dust crystals. Some thing new developed by the nations across the ocean on the Sanus continent."

"Where did you get it and how much did it cost?" asked Tealle in a soft voice yet still enough to be heard.

At the obvious and important questions everyone's eyes turned back to Bron.

"Well as it just so happens a traveling merchant arrived a little after you all left this morning."

"A merchant how. If the Grimm didn't get him then the trek across the Dradson range would have. It's nothing but shear cliffs and the only safe way through is the caves our ancestors came through." Lav questioned with great interest.

"Hmm. Yes normally you would be right Lav. But as it turns out dust can also be used as a propulsion source to fly."

"Fly?!" Duke said with a expression of disbelief.

"I couldn't believe it myself when I first saw it but the merchant arrived in a craft shaped like a... a flying skyboat. Its over at the docks if you want to have a look and maybe buy some of his goods. Although he's got a lot of business since arriving so he may be low on wares by now."

"We may as well see what this merchant has Duke. And find out more about this dust?" Lav suggested.

Duke gave a sigh as he placed his modified axe into its slot on his leather strap across his back and glanced over to Tealle who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah lets go I guess."

It was a short walk across town and to the marina where the mysterious merchant was docked. Upon arriving the three friends found the docks packed with people coming and going from the long house sized boat which had a giant cylinder shaped hot air balloon floating above it, triple the boats the size which was all ready the size of a long building.

"So that's what that was," Duke said as the three of them had wondered what the white object floating over the Marina had been as they had approached the so called flying boat.

Upon entering the structure taking up most of the boats deck the three rangers saw a layout much like a general store but of a foreign style and with many things they had never seen before as a dozen other people looked over the goods on the mostly empty shelves.

"Is this all for you ma'am," said a faint voice coming from the other end of the room.

The three rangers walked closer seeing a man checking out a customer who had purchased some exotic fruit and then left.

"Thank you for the purchase," the man thanked and then saw the three rangers looking at him. "Um can I help you."

"Uh yes." said Duke as he and the others walked up to the man who on closer inspection didn't have any animal ears or claws or evan a tail. "Are you a... Human," Duke asked the man as he brushed some of his two toned hair of light and dark green to the side of his glasses.

"Umm...yes. Is that a problem sir."

Duke now feeling like he was being unwelcoming to the man who had helped fix his family axe decided to start over. "Um Im Duke and this is Tealle and Lav. I heard that you sold dust and that it was used to fix my axe."

"Axe...?. Ah yes that bull horned gentlemen from before. Is it unsatisfactory?."

"No no. It's just that... I would like to thank you it's been my family for... well I have no clue how long."

Tealle than gave Duke a nug.

"Oh and could you tell us more about dust and how it works. I really don't know much about the modifications done to _'Grimm end'_."

"Grim end?" the store owner asked.

"The name of my axe."

"Oh I see. (pushing up eye glasses) I've heard about you warrier types naming your weapons. Anyway I understand. Well I'll be happy to give you a explanation."

"Thank you mister?"

"Mell. Call me Mell. Vio!." Mell called and a few moments later a young violet haired girl came up from a lower deck and as soon as the pretty young teenager came into view Lav took notice of her and started eyeing her which prompted Tealle to elbow him in the side.

"Yeah what?" Vio asked her older brother.

"Could you take over the register for me. I need to help these customer's out a bit."

"(Sigh) Ok but don't take too long."

Mell lead the three rangers onto the roof of the boat as a small insect watched them from the hand rail nearby.

Mell started a long and informative explanation of the four basic types of Dust and that they can be combined into different combinations to generate secondary effects as well as explaining about all the innovations that are possible now thanks to Dust, including his airship which is a basic modal and not at all special where he comes from. But Dust is quite costly to mine and refine so it not cheap.

"Ugh that's all very interesting but can you explain how im supposed to use it," Duke asked.

"Oh, uh sorry I tend to get distracted when explaining my wears." Mell apologized. "Now you know what a gun is right, well your axe uses the newest technology to combine both a melee weapon and a ranged weapons together."

"Gun huh... so I just aim this at a target and pull the trigger," Duke said aiming his axe out at the open river and pulling the trigger. (Bang!)

The red shell launched out as the revolver rotated the next round into place. The red shell slowly arched downwards as it flew over the river and detonated as it hit the water creating a steam explosion.

"Well that was interesting. I'm guessing that that was a red fire Dust," Lav stated.

~Yes it was...~ Mell said as he and the Faunus continued their conversation overheard by the Zerg Locust scout.

* * *

"Mmm how did humans get on to this planet I wonder?. Earth should be their native planet," wondered Yutorra as she sat on the branch of a tall tree overlooking the valley below. "And these Faunus... a strange mutation, just Humans with animal parts. Not that different really hmm..." Yutorra continued to muse as she observed with great interest as the Humans and Faunus talked more.

It had been seer luck that the evolution masters were nearly done with the Faunus samples when that merchant and his airship was spotted by Overseers patrolling around the Valley the Faunus live in luckley the airship was slow and took two days to reach the village giving enough time to put all the Faunus back into their places in the village by the morning the airship arrived.

But still it was a close call as Solus didn't want anyone noticing that something was wrong nor did he want to go through the trouble of implanting false memories as its simpler to just erase memories then to change them. Things tend to get more complicated and if any one is smart enough then they may pop the illusion that everything is fine.

* * *

 **Remnant**

 **Location unknown**

In a dark and depressing land of a barren wasteland, covered in a rocky terrain with purple crystals of varying shapes and sizes sprouting from the ground and a sky stained a dark red while Grimm in their hundreds milled about the region occasionally spawning from large pools of a viscous, tar-like substance.

In this cursed land Salem sat over looking over her realm from a high cliff side simply enjoying the desolation that she will one day spread over the world of humanity. Even though she was once a human herself who once lived a lonely life of isolation in a castle put there by her father, until a brave man named Ozma came to be her knight in shining armor and took her away. But their life together was cut short when Ozma was struck down by a illness which took his life. Grieving the death of her beloved Salem traveled to the land of light where the god of light and life resided. Salem asked that he bring her beloved back but refused saying it was against the balance of life and death.

Angered that the god of light had rejected her request Salem decided to try asking the younger god of darkness, but even though he granted her beloved life anew he struck Ozma down again after the god of light arrived and convinced his younger brother that Salem was manipulating him to get what she selfishly wanted. Grieving and angered at the gods ruthlessness. Salem, enraged, prepared to attack the God of Light before being taken to his Domain. There the Gods cursed her with immortality, hoping she would come to understand the purpose of life and death.

Angered and feeling betrayed by both the gods Salem devoted herself to getting revenge and destroying the gods and to do such she traveled the world seeking allies manipulating them to turn against the gods and leading a great army against the domain of light. There, humanity met its end at the hands of the God of Darkness, who killed everyone but Salem as a final punishment. The God of Light spoke sadly of his disappointment in Salem and humanity, declaring the planet a Remnant of what it once was. The Gods then abandoned the planet.

Salem now alone, wandered the Remnant before finding herself back in the God of Darkness' home, the Land of Darkness. Where she found the dark pools responsible for spawning the creatures of Grimm. Hoping that the pools would take away her immortality and finally reunite her with her beloved Ozma, she threw herself in. Salem was not killed but her mind and body were transforming and forever changed into something different and evil.

Many years unknown years after humanity returned from extinction and Salem once again was reunited with her beloved Ozma who had somehow been reincarnated in another mans body. The two lived happily together and stated a family. But thing changed when they, the only humans able to use magic now, and seeing the way humanity fights itself used their power to unit the scattered human groups together. Years passed and the two created not only a great kingdom but had four daughters who also could use magic. However things never last and one day Ozma had doubts to Salem's methods to unite humanity and he confessed to her about what he had been told by the god of light.

Some time after that both Salem and Ozma battled and in the fight destroyed their home and killed their children, beginning the centuries-long conflict between the two former lovers.

Some time after that the dark one Amon arrived on Remnant, and found Salem who felt such power radiating from him that it shook her to her core. Amon seeing potential in her purposed a deal saying that his master who was the enemy of the two gods who betrayed her would grant Salem her four daughters new life and take the immortality and dark corruption from her. Salem after much thought agreed and Amon and his servent Samir granted Salem even greater powers which she used to control Grimm and lead them to one day lay waste to all of humanity who lay scattered across the whole world.

Despite many long years of hunting humans and Faunus there always seems to be survivors who warn other settlements, and the humans have also developed new weapons using dust that have become a real threat to even the strongest Grimm but this even is but a small obstacle to be overcome along with the reincarnating Ozma who has become a thorn in Salem's side over the long years.

But as the old saying goes. "The worst enemy of humanity is it's selfe," Salem mused as she formulated her planes to find vulnerable and easily manipulated Humans to be used as pawns to bring down their own species from the inside once and for all. But such plans would take quite a long time for all the pieces to fall into place and she obtains the four artifacts Ozma spoke of and which Amon wants, but Salem was immortal, and patient.

As the Shattered moon became more visible through the parting clouds a massive figure of darkness decorated with spikes and glowing blood red markings across his form that all seemed to be glimmering in the faint moonlight as if the beings body were made from a organic metal of some kind.

The ground shook as Amon approached the lone Grimm queen sitting on the cliff. The many lesser creatures of Grimm ran out from the dark gods path or were trampled under foot by the giant.

 **"Salem,"** Amon's mental voice called out with a great pressure of both the mind and spirit that made even the queen of Grimm tremble in dread at his power.

"Yes my master," Salem spoke with great respect and zeal to serve her master.

 **"I am leaving this world to continue my planes elsewhere before my enemies eye returns upon this world and detect that I am here. I want the humans on this rock destroyed before my God return,s to this realm of reality."**

"Understood my master."

Amon then deactivated his psi-stealth unit and levitated off the ground a few moments before disappearing in a flash of black light leaving the Grimm queen fulfill her masters orders.

In a split second Amon teleported aboard his ship hidden among the drifting fragments of the moon, a Tal'darim vessel which the dark being had been traveling in for the past few hundred years scouting the galaxy for possible allies and pawns to use to destroy the sealing structures called Halos by their creators which separated the dimension of Paradiso known as the Immaterium by the Xel'naga/Forerunners.

Amon and his second in command who will one day be known as Samir Duran and later as Emil Narud both had been summoned through great effort and sacrifice by the Tal'darim whos very flesh and blood were used to form the two Immaterium beings new bodies in the Material realm (Which were different in color and lesser in power than their real bodies left in the Immaterium) but without a connection with the Immaterium their power will be limited, relegating the two to hiding and planing the destruction of the Halo array from the shadows.

It would be foolish for Amon and Samir to assault such constructs by themselves for even in their true forms fueled by the Immaterium it would still be a difficult undertaking given that every Halo is a fortress guarded by a army of millions of Sentinels of varying types and sizes to say nothing of the anti psychic technology created by the Xel'naga/Forerunners. The ring worlds also have the production ability to quickly replace any losses with with ease so should Amon or Samir ever openaly attack a Halo the Monitor and its nearly unlimited Sentinels would simply overwhelm them with their numbers. Although the two could no doubt do considerable damage it would not be worth the effort in the long run and alerting the Monitors to their presence in the galaxy is also something Amon and Samir don't need which is why they are looking for pawns to use.

With heavy foot falls Amon walked through the resized halls of the ship mentally chuckling to him selfe at the foolish little worm who calls herself queen of the Grimm. Amon had no intention of up holding his deal with Salem but found it... amusing to use her as a pawn. Upon reaching the bridge Amon took his set upon the giant chair from which he controlled the ship.

 **"Samir"** Amon called out **.**

In a bright flash of light the lesser being of the warp appeared before his master teleporting from another part of the ship.

 **"Yes master,"** qurriered the creature with black metallic skin and red markings standing on two legs with two large horns like spikes coming off his shoulders ending in red points, the creature also had a long face ending in black tentacle's for a mouth and four glowing red eyes and a tail that split into five smaller tails coming off its sides.

 **"We are Returning to Slayn for now. Surely the Tal'darim have have recovered from forming these bodies for us, then we shall find a key ship to reach the Ark."**

 **"I believe I know of a world with such a craft,"** said Samir.

 **"And where would that be,"** Amon inquired.

 **"A world named Janjur Qom, "**

 **"I remember that world,"** Amon mused. **"It is the homeworld of the San'Shyuum who allied themselves with the Humans.**

 **"Yes before we and our great God where made into being by the folly of the Forerunners they had fought a war against the parasite if I recall."**

 **"Hmph the Flood,"** muttered Amon at the mention of the third faction that had fought for domination of the galaxy all those thousands of years ago after the awakening off the Warp god of domination and glory **. "The Flood could be a useful tool."** Amon mused remembering the memories he had ripped from the minds of Xel'naga/Forerunners.

 **"Need I remind you lord Amon of how dangerous they are,"** Samir cautioned remembering that they found samples of the Flood parasite on one of the Halos rings they had found.

 **"I know Samir."** Rebuked Amon. **"But we have no choice if we are to destroy the Halo array."**

 **"Hmm. You want to make a alliance with the Gravemind."**

 **"Yes. Temporarily of course. But we must be ever cautious, if the Monitors find out we are on this side of the vale of reality they will put everything they have into banishing us back to the Immaterium. That's why I purpose we use the humans to brake one of their precious Halos."**

Samir chuckled darkly as he put the pieces of Amons plan together. **"Use the Flood to instigate the humans to destroy one of the Halos."**

 **"Ha, ha, ha, ha, Yes correct. It would be so... as the humans say. Ironic."**

After completing their plans both Amon and Samir left the Reamant star system returning to the Tal'darim world of Slayn.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

 **Note**

I hope I got Amon and Samir,s character ok. If not well then tell me.

I'm going to make more chapters like this one to slowly build up the timeline of events that culminate in the events of Halo, Starcraft, and RWBY. It may be a slow going for a bit until some major action.

Also im doing this because the RWBY story has not been completed yet, like the Starcraft and Halo story's so i'm going to drag things out for as long as I can. I may end up just rewriting the RWBY story from the end of volume 3 onwards or at least making major changes because of the unfinished story.


	8. Chapter 8

[Shadow Horror] I do have a overall plan as to Ellens Zerg swarm meeting the flood, and as to the Grimm their not that great seeing as their weaker than 1st generation Zerg so their essence is not that useful with the exception of maybe their emotion sensing ability and self-destruction ability which could keep the essence of Ellen's swarm from being taken by the Overminds swarm.

And also just for those of you who don't fully understand. The main difference between 1st and 2nd generation Zerg in Ellens swarm is that 2nd generation Zerg are able to use psi-armor even if in a limited way. 2nd gen Zerg have other advantages over the 1st gen Zerg but the psi-armor is the main one.

Also as I was looking into RWBY info and maps for my story and I noticed that there are, [in reality two dragon shaped continents], the western one and the eastern one, that,s shaped like a long bodied asian dragon. The northern peninsula is the head and neck and the body arches westward and then south to the tail. I think it was a neat idea to put a western style dragon continent in the west and a eastern style dragon continent in the east.

* * *

 **[Chapter 8]**

 **[Meeting's and plans]**

* * *

 **Remnant**

 **North western region of Dragon Continent**

 **Desert region**

 **Underground hive cluster**

It has been two weeks since the human Merchant Mell arrived in the village of Alcon named for the river it site's along as he discovered from his talks with the Faunus.

In that time Solus had added the final touch to his hive cluster with a evolution chamber so his few Evo-masters could work more efficiently sinch even with his size increase there is still not that much room in his evolution pit.

After a few encounters between Zerg and Grimm It became apparent that collecting essence from them would be very difficult dew to their ability to self destruct once they die, destroying them self,s down to the genetic level. However Solus and his evolution masters were less interested in Grimm essence for their powers but rather their ability to destroy their own essence which was far more interesting given the swarms need for a way to prevent the Overminds swarm from stealing their essence when the two swarms eventually meet.

Racorra, the brood queen Solus sent to hunt and collect Grimm soon developed a technique to capture Grimm alive and hull them back to the hive cluster in Overlords for analysis. Most Grimm warn't worth the effort of capture as they were far weaker then Zerg and even lacked a hive mind that otherwise would have allowed them to communicate and coordinate their forces like the Zerg.

If they were ever able to do such a thing the Grimm would be a far more dangerous opponent even for the Zerg.

located to the south west nearly on the opposite side of the continent from the Faunus village was a small human nation consisting of a dozen towns all enclosed in a large geographically isolated area surrounded by the ocean to the south and west and a L shaped mountain range to the north and east.

As Yutorra was sent to keep watch on the Faunus town of Alcon and Racorra hunted Grimm, Numorra was sent to observe and collect Human samples and like with the Faunus the members of the population that had unlocked their aura's and semblances were a priority for capture and sampling. However they were also the more difficult to take alive as their Auras created a protective barrier even as they sleeped although weaker then when their awake, but still preventing the specialized Locust armed with a paralyzing stingers from rendering them unconscious. This caused more than a few fights between the Humans, Faunus and Zerg, resulting in injury's to the samples and the deaths of some lesser Zerg.

But in the end it was a minor inconvenience even with the Humans being armed with Dust weapons.

Do to how they were spread out the villages of the Human nation were easy pickings for Numorra as she traveled around at night time in her fleet of Harbingers and Overlords dropping, Locusts and Phantoms into the scattered towns and after the populace were rendered unconscious and the warriors defeated the Harbingers and Overlords picked them and the Human samples up bringing them back to the hive cluster for testing.

Only those with a Aura and Semblance were allowed to wake up from their slumber after being implanted with the sensory parasites invented by Abastein to monitor their bodies functionality during combat. They were then put through intense testing by fighting captured Grimm of varying types in a arena style chamber along with some lesser Zerg. After the tests were concluded they were rendered unconscious again and had their memories erased before they were sent back to their respective towns none the wiser of what really happened to them.

* * *

 **South western region of Dragon continent**

 **Xanadu capital**

 **Seaport city of Aranna**

 **422 AF (After founding of the nation)**

In the early morning knight captain Titus Arestrom awoke to a cawing of seagulls outside his window in the Knight guard officers house. Sitting up the 50 plus year old man rubbed the back of his neck feeling a strange scar like bump but not thinking much of it. He got out of bed and took a look out the window at the city by the ocean before changing into his uniform and buckling his sword sheath to his hip.

Upon exiting the officers quarters and walking into the congested street he was met by his second in command lieutenant Thara.

"Good morning sir," the red head greeted with a salut.

"Good morning Lieutenant." the captain replied returning the salute. "So what's the early bird routine?" he asked knowing that the Lieutenant normally waits for him in the guard post they are assigned to.

"The knight guard got a messenger pigeon this early morning just before sun up from that Mell guy, the merchant from Sanus will be returning here along with a diplomatic group from a Faunus town far to the east," Thara informed.

Captain Titus thought remembering one of his history lessons that told of the Humans and Faunus sailing in a great fleet from Sanus a few hundred years ago. And a century after that when the population started getting too high and Grimm attacks increased a dozen groups along with the majority of the Faunus population left scattering across the continent never to be heard from again do to the isolated geography and Grimm.

"Faunus huh. I haven't heard of them for a long time," the captain stated rubbing his chin in thought.

"I think there are still some Faunus family's living along the south east coast by the edge of the Fanged mountains," Thara stated in a unsure tone.

"Well whatever the case we should get over to the port to provide security just in case any idiots or pickpockets decide to cause trouble for the Count. I know he loves personally greeting travelers given how rare they are."

Thara chuckled as they both walked off to the docks. "I think its just because he's board most of the time given how the prince runs the council now a days."

"That may be the case but count Barry Adelson is still the leader of Xanadu."

* * *

 **10 kilometers east of Xanadu's border**

 **Altitude 6058 meters above sea level**

Mell's airship jostled about as the high mountains winds blew against his craft.

In the control room of the airships second floor and forward most room Mell held onto the control wheel with all his strength as he guided the airship over and through the Fanged mountains for the second time while his sister Vio made sure the dust powered float engines stayed online or else they would fall like a box of rocks to be dashed to pieces on the jagged mountain peaks below.

The Faunus on the other hand were having a... rougher time.

They had gotten used to flying over the course of the past week of travel from their village on the diplomatic mission to make contact with and start trade relations with other villages which the elders of their village had expressed great interest in after learning of the other places Mell had visited before he landed in their valley.

But now the four Faunus were each doing their best to keep from loosing their lunch as the ship swayed back and forth.

Behind Mell Duke was sitting down in a chair arms on his knees with his head between his legs moaning.

Lav stood by the window holding on to a handrail giving the best straight face he can muster, given his seasick green face, drooping cat ears and weary eyes.

Mell gave him a 'are you ok look' and Lav replied with a not very convincing smile of his before grabbing his mouth and holding on for dear life as the air currents tossed the ship about.

Tealle and the Alcon village elder the three Rangers were guarding on the diplomatic mission took turns in the lower deck bathroom as they each lost their lunch from the back and forth motions.

"Aaah are we through this accursed mountain range yet," Duke asked in a nauseated tone.

Mell fought the wheel a bit before answering. "Ah just a bit more. Need I remind you it was your idea to take the shortcut over the mountains instead of going south and around them," Mell replied as he did his best to keep them all from dying.

"Aaah _'hrump'._ Ah... yes I remember," Duke replied.

* * *

 **Flashback two hours ago**

 **Eastern side of the Fanged mountains**

The airship floated twenty kilometers away from the mountains as the two Humans and four Faunus stood in the ship's control room with Vio had the helm of the ship.

"So you saw it will take about two extra days to go around the Fanged mountains?" asked the Alcon elder serving as the diplomat and village representative on the trip.

"Yes I suggest taking that route. We took the trip over the Fanged mountains the last time me and my sister traveled east. It was a very rough ride and I was exhausted from just keeping us on course. The winds are very fast up that high up and the mountain pecks cause them to blow as odd angles. If we can't keep control the ship it will crash into the mountain side," Mell warned from his past experience.

"Still you came out of it unscathed the first time you went through, so I think it will be fine. I would like to finish with this diplomatic mission sooner then later," the elder said holding his ground.

"He does have a point Mell."Lav said defending the elders point of view. "If you got through the mountains with little experience on your first go then it can't be all that bad."

Mell sighed remembering how his arms felt like rubber from fighting the control wheel the first time. "Duke, Tealle, Vio?," Mell called out to get their opinion's.

Vio was for it along with Duke who got a elbow to the ribs from Tealle who was against the idea.

"Eh sorry Tealle but if a novice got over the mountains it can't be that bad. No offense Mell."

(Sigh)"None taken."

* * *

 **Flashback end.**

After a hour more of the tossing and turning and back and forth of the wind, the small airship finally exited the wind currents of the Fanged mountains and descended down into the wide open plains that made up the nation of Xanadu. No fewer than five large one to two hundred feet wide rivers cutting the plains area into six long strips of green land most of which was covered in farm lands and the areas along the north and eastern mountains being covered in forests.

However as the Human airship descended a Zerg Overseer and its escort of two Wyverns followed from a much higher altitude of 10,000 meters. They followed the Human airship as it continued along its course to a port city remaining at a higher altitude then what the Humans and Faunus can see as they continued their mision to keep a eye on the group.

Soon after traveling over the great plains of Xanadu the airship touched down at the seaport. At this point the Overseer sent out a small swarm of a few dozen Locusts to get a closer look.

The airship touched down on the water with little but a splash as the crowds that were gathered by the ports all watched as the Merchant ship owned by Mell took its second stop at their port city. Among the groups of people was count Barry Adelson the leader of the nation of Xanadu.

"Well I see they got my letter," Mell said as he guided the airship now turned seacraft closer to the docks as the groups of people watched as a big man with golden hair and beard like a lion along with a matching a tail walked on deck with shaky legs followed by a young girl who most recognised as Vio Mells sister. The two of them wrapped the ships ropes onto the docks securing it in place.

Duke was still too shaken up from the flight over the mountains to care much about all the people gathered along the docks and just made a lazy grin and wave to them, noticing that a few of them were in armor and armed with swords. A few moments later two of the armored people moved through the crowed as if looking for someone.

Mell walked on deck and then onto the docks pier along with Tealle carrying a big bag slung over her shoulders, followed the Faunus diplomat and Lav quickly ran to catch up from puking his guts out in the bathroom. But as soon as he caught sight of some of the Human ladies in the crowed he quickly took out a cloth and wiped his face clean and sprayed some of that perfume that he had bought from Mell on his neck and under arms and even combed his hair all in less than ten seconds as Duke watched him and face palmed at the one track minded woman on the brains cat man.

"Mell my friend its good to see you." count Barry said as he took the man's hand and shook it. "It's been just over a month since you left us, and you bring passengers with you?"

"Ahh yes your highness, these are the Faunus I told you about in my letter."

"Ahh yes... um. Mell my good friend I wish to say welcome to you. And to you Faunus as well it is good to know that their are surviving settlements out their."

The Faunus diplomat took this opportunity to introduce himself as he remembered the counts name from the short explanation of Xanadu Mell gave as they were first setting off on their trip. "Greetings Count Barry. Im Brans Lasten the representative of the Faunus village of Alcon."

Count Barry and his personal guards glanced in wonderment for a moment at the mans gray rabbit ears each of which had three gold rings.

"Ah it is good to meet you mister Lasten. Uh forgive me and my peoples reaction but it has been some time since we of Xanadu have meet any Faunus."

"That is quite alright Count Andelson. It has been a few hundred years since we have met any humans. Now I believe any further discussion should be handled in a more... appropriate location," Brans suggested.

The count smiled and called to his guards for his opulently decorated carriage as the throngs of people parted for it to passby.

"Your highness I'm afraid I'll have to stay here as i'm sure all these people are eager to have a look at my new goods that i've obtained from the other side of the continent," Mell said quit eager to please his customers with the goods he had traded for and bought in Alcon village, some of which included life like Grimm head mounts or even full body replicas the making of which was something of a tradition among the Alcon village rangers sinch they can't keep the self destructing Grimm bodies.

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that mister Mell but please you are welcome at my Estate any time," Count Barry stated as he and the Faunus gathered into the carriage with the bodyguards following as it was pulled off by the horses.

"Heh, well that was something," Titus said as he held a unconscious teenage thief under his arm.

"I wonder if the count is too friendly to travelers sometimes. Not everyone is a possible ally," lieutenant Thara said as she held another thief in her arms KO'ed from her smack to his head.

As people gathered on board Mell's merchant ship to look at his goods or dispersed going back to their daily lives a man in a cloak watched from atop a nearby warehouse on the docks.

"Hmm the prince will want to hear about this," the cloaked moustached man said as he turned around and dropped down on the other side of the building.

* * *

 **Half a hour later**

 **Royal palace**

Quinn Adelson the crown prince of Xanadu and current head of the royal council which runs the day to day administration of Xanadu's government, sat in his rather large bath tube while sipping some wine.

Hours ago he and the other council members had ended their tenth deliberation on weather or not to try to expand beyond the Fanged mountains.

Two years ago a battalion of knights guarding a group of geologist went north beyond the Fanged mountains in search of a safe and usable land and after a month of looking had unexpectedly come across a mother load of precious metals which the kingdom was sorely in need of. The only problem was that the area was the territory of a rather large group of Grimm Death stalkers, and while the knights of Xanadu can hold their own against most small and medium sized Grimm a group of house sized Death stalkers can do a lot of damage to even a well trained army. By the time the expedition returned their numbers were cut in half. Between the random Grimm ambuses and the occasional moron who thinks the warning of 'stay in the group' is a suggestion, the losses mounted, and then there was the losses of ten of the geologist and 200 knights that were lost to the Death stalkers.

The other council members although admitting that they were in need if the resources were against the venture considering the danger and the potential loss of manpower just to secure the area let alone keep it. Even with the addition of Dust weapons provided by that marchent Mell from across the ocean.

However Dust weapons, although a great help were too few in number to arm every soldier and they coast a pretty penny considering the distance Mell had to travel just to resupply.

"*ucking Deathstalkers. *ucking Grimm," the prince muttered in frustration with a angered scowl on his face only for his expression to change to a pleasured moan just before Russ one of his spy's literally dropped in from a secret passageway in the ceiling.

"Ahh!..." prince Quinn exclaimed as a woman rose from the water filled bathtub in just as much surprise as the prince. "Russ..." the prince said in frustration. "How many times have I told you not to do that. Enter the room like a normal person, your not a damn thief!" the prince said being reminded of the reports of a small group of thief's that had for the last year and a half mad quit a name for themselves stealing from even nobles.

"Sorry your highness," Russ apologised with a bow.

"Ah Olive"the prince said in a soft tone." can you please give me and my friend here some privacy," said the prince reluctantly as the nude woman got out of the water drying herself off and quickly got her cloths on before leaving, blowing the prince a kiss as she closed the door.

Prince Quinn then glared at Russ who was still looking at the door when the prince called out to him.

"Russ over here, "snapping his fingers as Russ turned towards him." your report," the prince asked as he gestured with his free hand.

"Oh aah yes... um your highness it seems that, that mearchent from across the ocean...Mell has returned from his trip to the east."

"Yes so..." the prince said uninterested as he finished off his glass of wine and refilled it from the bottle on a table by his bathtub.

"Yes well it seems that he did not come alone. He arrived a short while ago with a group of... Faunus. Four in fact. It appeared to be a diplomatic group because they had a talked with your father who had been waiting for them."

In shock to this the prince spit out a bit of the wine he had just drank. "What?!. Father meet them."

"And took them in his carriage to his private villa," Russ added as the prince reclined back in the bathtub trying to relax and think.

"Ok... I suppose I will have to meet these... little animals just to make sure Father doesn't mess up any of my plans with one of his crazy ideas," the prince muttered to himself as he took another ship of his whine.

* * *

 **Meanwhile in count Barry's private villa**

The Faunus envoy's and their Human hosts, count Barry and two of his bodyguards gathered in a rather lavishly decorated room with a fireplace. Some servants came in and placed some silver trays of decorated tea cups on the short table between the two couches the two parties sat in. The three rangers looked and felt a little out of place in the room as they looked around but still put on a respectful front.

The rabbit eared elder diplomat took a cup of tea and smelled it, taking in the pleasurably aroma that the stronger senses of a Faunus can only enjoy. "Ah this smells delightful. What kind of tea is it." Brans Lasten asked as the Count took a sip of his tea also.

"Oh I believe this particular type is Oolong. Supposedly from the faraway continent of Anima far to the east...(sipping tea) or west depending of how you look at it."

Brans let out a small agreeing laugh as the two middle aged men shared a leisurely talk before getting to business.

Tealle got goosebumps from the taste and smell of the tea as she, Lav and Duke tried their own cups, but as soon as Duke tried his he slurped instead of sipped quickly attracting everyone's attention.

"Ahh this is... uh new... I've never tried this... Oolong before," Duke said as his face flush with a expression of silent embarrassment.

"Smooth," Tealle whispered into Dukes ear.

Wanting to change the subject Lav intervened.

"Ahh I do like this Oolong tea. Its taste is somewhere between sweet and toasty," Lav said upbeatally with a smile actually enjoying his tea as Duke silently thanked his friend for diverting attention from him.

"I,m overjoyed to hear that you like it. It cost a steep amount considering how long our merchant friend Mell had it in stock. Said he had it ever since leaving port in Anima and sailing across Sanus and well until he reached our Continent of 'Avalon'," count Barry said catching the Faunus ears.

"Oh is that what you call the continent?" Lav asked the count.

"Yes. It comes from a legend about a silver eyed warrior king who slayed a Dragon Grimm in ancient days. If I recall my great, great... great, grandfather heard it from a old man or who's name was never spoken... I don't fully recall all the details but the story has been passed down in my family for generations along with another concerning a man who has two souls, each struggling for control of the body, huh? now that I think about it I always liked that one... maybe I'll write a book about it some day," count Barry muttered to himself as he finished off his cup of tea along with the others.

"That all sounds quite interesting but now if I do say we should get down to business," Bran's stated as he asked Tealle to grab the contents of the bag she had carried since leaving the docks. Tealle reached between her legs where she sat the bag and opened it, making the guards tense up in caution as she lifted a rather large chunk of raw Dust out of the bag and placed it on the table.

"Oh my is that... raw Dust? and quite a large chunk also" count Barry said aloud, his jaw dropped for a moment before recovering his composer as from what he knows of Dust from Mell even this amount can fetch a rather large price on the open market mainly because Grimm tend to make mining such things problematic at best. Most of the safer large mines that aren't in Grimm infested areas are few and far between on other continents. "If I may ask where did you get this?" Barry asked making his best poker face.

"Well to be honest count we didn't really know that this stuff... Dust was all that valuable until that Mell and his sister dropped into our village and informed us of its true value," Bran's admitted as he continued. "To explain our ancestors arrived in the Alcon valley we now call home after taking a dangerous underground route through a cave network that went all the way through a mountain range we now call the Dradson range.

"It means dreadful place," Duke said, explaining the name.

"Yes it was... is a dangerous place. "Brans admitted. "Half the people that traveled through the cave died from Grimm attacks as they made their way through it. But one of the useful things they found along the way were these crystals in the caves. We still harvest them on the rare occasion when we need them. We use them mainly as a source of light and warmth otherwise we would have to burn trees and considering the small size of our valley compared to... well your nations rather large plot of land, our forest would have been all used up and left barrien."

The count thought as he considered what a boon this was. There were no Dust veins anywhere in Xanadu to his knowledge or anything like Dust in general but it seems that these people have by accident or luck or the grace of whatever god you would want to pray to been blessed with access to a motherload of Dust even if it's Grimm infested.

"Hmm I see. Mister Brans you intend to open a trade route between our two respective nations.

"Yes in short," replied the aged rabbit Faunus.

"Then I surmise the relationship between us would be... mutually beneficial. We of Xanadu would invest in buying the airships from across the ocean to transport the Dust. And you mine it from the cave," the count stated in a more serious tone.

"I would hardly call our lone village a nation but... Yes," the Faunus diplomat replied with a small grin as he and the count regarded each other.

Count Barry and Faunus envoy Bran,s stood and started shaking hands. "Mister Bran's Lasten I do believe we have agreement.

It was in that moment prince Quinn barged in, gaining the glares from everyone in the room as a guard who was on the outside apologized for not keeping the prince out.

"Thats ok leave us," the count said with a exasperated expression on his face as the guard left the room closing the door as he went.

"Father I." the prince started as he gave the Faunus a look over. "heard you have guests from another settlement."

"Yes and we have just concluded a discussion when you... so rudely let yourself in," count Barry stated as his son noticed the large piece of raw Dust on the table.

"Is that Dust?!"

"Yes it is," Bran's stated as the prince's eyes went wide at the sight of such a large nugget of Dust. "And it is the reason for our trip to your nation prince...uh."

Prince Quinn regained his composer at the words and replied. "Quinn..."

"Ah prince Quinn. We are from a rather humble village far to the east, who just so happens to have access to a... rather large vein of Dust and we wise to open a trade partnership with your nation."

Prince Quinn regarded the aged Faunus diplomat with his best poker face. Covering up the fact he was more interested in the dust then the Faunus.

"Hmm so that is the deal. Father I hope you told them that the final word on such decisions will be up to the council which may I remind you I am the current head of," the prince said intentionally to show how much power he has.

As the prince let it slip that he controls the final decision on the matter Bran's suddenly understood more about the power structure in this nation and the relationship between the count and his son.

Prince Quinn gave the Faunus another look over, adjusting his plans as he went.

"Now mister...?"

"Bran's Lasten your highness," he introduced himself using the honorific.

"Brans lasten... I, and the other members of the council, would like to hear more on this trade deal you wish to make with our nation in detail two days from now. Until then good day," the prince said before turning around and leaving as Duke raised a eyebrow at the man.

Count Barry apologized for his sons rudeness, calling one of his servants to lead the Faunus guests to their room for the night.

(Sigh)"Why does it seem like he's going to be trouble," Duke stated as he laid down in the comfy bed with his legs hanging off it's edge.

"Another one of your gut feelings?" Lav asked with a shrug as he looked out the window.

"Maybe... can't tell yet. What do you think Tealle?"

"Snake" the wolf eared girl replied summing up her opinion of the guy in one word.

"Yeah he did seem off a bit," Lav stated as Brans came in from his private room across the hallway.

"I don't really care about the internal politics of this nation or the royal family. If we are to protect our village and maybe even improve the quality of life for our people we need this deal to go through. And all of you should keep that in mind when we meet this council. Am I understood," Bran,s stated in a strong tone.

"Uh yes," Duke replied.

"I understand," Lave replied.

"Understood," Tealle said in a subdued tone.

* * *

 **Xanadu capital Aranna**

 **Knight guard jail house #4**

 **7:00 PM**

A Knight guard (which also serves as a police force) walked across the jail cell room as the two thieves handed to him by the captain and Lieutenant gave him a mile long glare.

"What your own fault for not following the law little brats," the man said as he walked over to a chair and sat down and picked up a book to read until his shift is over.

The two teenage thieves gave each other a sidelong look and one looked out the window seeing that it was night time indicating that it was time for the plan to start. After getting themselves caught on propose it was now time for the two to start their plan to rescue their jailed third member of their little troupe of thieves.

One of the jailed thieves started feeling around his for-arm then using his semblance of Farromancy (touch based Metal bending) he pulled out of his arm a small piece of metal that quickly took the shape of a key. Quietly he handed it over to his partner in the cell next to him and then moved to the front door of his cell grabbing the bars and looking over to see his partner with the key in her cell door. In the next instant they both acted at the same time both opening their cells, one bending open the bars and the other unlocking the cell door making a distinct clanking noise.

"Huh?" the lone guard exclaimed as he stood up and turned around to see both prisoners free of their cells. He reached for his sword as one of them rushed him grabbing onto his shoulder. The guards body started jerking and shaking as a jolt of electricity surge through his body like a tazer and in the next moment the man fell to the floor barely conscious and numb and limp all over feeling like a Boarbatusk had hit him.

"Well that was easy," Storm said as Nick walked over to her and the guard, bending some of the metal bars into bands of metal to tied the guard up then tied some cloth into a mouth gag to keep him from yelling when he woke up.

"Ok lets get Pastel and get out of here," Nick said quietly as the two teenage thieves made their way through the building avoiding the other knight guards as they made their way to the lower cells eventually finding the third member of their little group in a lone cell room.

Nick and Storm bothe entered the room with caution making sure there were no guards. As they did the lone figure laying on the bed looked over at them.

"Nick. Storm? it's about time you got here!" Pastel exclaimed in a soft voice as he got out of bed. Nick touched the bars of Pastel's cell and they bent like play-doh allowing Pastel to just walk through them.

"Ok mission completed. let's get out of here," Nick said just as the door to the room slammed open and Knight captain Titus and Lieutenant Thara entered.

"Shit! Titus," Pastel exclaimed remembering that it was these two who had captured him in the first place a week ago.

Titus looked a little disappointed at the young man."Now, now thats not the proper language for people your age."

"Oh what are you my dad now old man," Pastel yelled as Thara growled at the insolent young man who insulted her superior whom she has great respect for.

"Now, now, Thara no need to get angry."Titus said placing his hand on Thara's shoulder calming her down and keeping her from pounding the kids into paste. "Now Pastel, Nick, Storm." the three tenagers looked surprised Titus knows their names. "I know a lot about you considering your past exploits of stealing from half the people in Xanadu using your semblances. A little too successful in my opinion. You drew too much attention to yourselves and well... here we are," Titus said as he gestured around the room.

"Yeah well it's not like we chose to be orphans and live on the streets," Nick yalled the anger visible on his face.

"People like you who get warm meals and beds just because your the royal families lap dogs won't ever understand what it's like for people like us who don't have anyone to rely on but yourselves," Storm shouted back as Pastel told them to calm down. Being hot headed wouldn't help them get out of this situation.

"Whats your angle Titus. "Pastel asked. "If you really just wanted to put us in jail what's with the speech," asked the cunning leader of the thieving trio as he remembered the near instant curb stomping he got when Titus caught him during a supposedly normal thieving mission to a rich nobles house.

"Well Im glad to see that you learn. Pastel Theson," Titus said making Pastel freeze at the name.

"Ho- how do you know my last name," the teenager said in a confused tone of voice as Nick and Storm look equally confused.

"The same way I know that all of you are siblings. Your parents..." Titus said with a note of regret. "Alex and Sno Theson served under me when we went on that ill fated expedition two years ago. Its not common for two people let alone husband and wife to both be apart of such expedition," Titus said remembering that the three teenagers father was apart of the knight guard and mother was one of the Geologist who died during the mission.

"What?!," the three siblings exclaimed in differing tones and looks of surprise on their faces.

"I'm sorry if we got on the wrong foot but you three had turned to stealing things that aren't yous... But." Titus took a step forward making the three siblings tense up. "It's within my power to have the charges against you dropped and erased from your records IF..."

"If what?" Pastel asked wondering what could the old man possible give them to make it worth trusting him.

"If you join the Knight guard. People with awakened Auras and Semblances like yours are rare. You wouldn't have to steal anymore and you would have three meals a day and you would be working in your father's footsteps. I'm sure your parents would want you to make a honest living instead of living out on the street and stealing from others.

The three siblings looked stunned at the offer and shared confused looks between each other for a few moments.

As the three teenagers talked amongst themselves a literal fly on the wall watched them relaying everything it sees to the Zerg Brood queen Numorra.

* * *

 **Inside a Overlord hovering** F **our miles above the port city of Aranna,**

Numorra sat wings folded and tail wrapped around her crossed legs. Concentrating on taking in all the information from all of the Fly type Locusts in the human city below. Her evolved mind easily processing all the information from hundreds of Locust's and filing away the important date in her selective photographic memory.

Abastein under empress Ellen's direction had evolved the brain architecture of the Brood Queens essence arcitype to the point where they all have minds that can control their memories like a computer, discarding unnecessary memories if they so choose and make sure the important information remains. This was done for two reasons, one because of the long life span of Zerg. In a very long life possibly as long as ten thousand years or more, the memories will pile up so being able to discard the useless ones is an advantage to maintaining one's sanity and sense of self. The second reason is because it may be necessary for Brood queens to destroy all of their knowledge and memories if they are captured by a being able to forcibly take information from their minds such as the Protoss and Tal'darim or anything else with such abilities.

As Numorra sifted through the date from the Locusts the two events that stood out the most amongst them was the meeting between the Faunus party and the leader of Xanadu. And the encounter between the knight guard captain his lieutenant and the three thieves.

"Hmm," Numorra mumbled to herself as a thought ran through her mind. **"Solus I have a idea,"** she projected to the Behemoth.

 **"Speck Numorra what is on your mind."**

 **"I've been thinking... would it be possible for me to walk amongst the humans in one of those clone puppets the Evolution masters have been working on,"**

Numorra asked referring to the cloning experiments to understand the nature of the Aura and Semblance abilities of the Humans and Faunus on this world.

Solus brooded over the idea of using a clone body as a spy to infiltrate and spy on the locals but such was unnecessary with the Locusts. But the idea itself was also apart of the Empresses plan but was not meant to be implemented until much later when the four nations of Vale Vacuo Atlas Mistral were founded.

Solus thought over his orders and came to the conclusion that doing such at thise early stage was not against the empreses orders so long as Numorra doesn't do anything to change the ultimate fate of the Humans and Faunus.

 **"Very well Numorra you may use a cloned body. However it will not have the Aura ability nor a semblance like the natives. However I would suggest having it given the base ability of psi-armor from the Queens nest if you intend to encounter combat."**

Numorra cocked her head in puzzlement. **"The evolution masters can do that?"** she asked.

 **"Yes. And since we don't fully understand how the Aura and Semblances work perhaps you could glem such information from the people who have awakened their powers."**

Numorra weighed her options and decided to go through with her idea even though she had no need to walk amongst the people of this world. Still she had a feeling of curiosity that couldn't be satisfied watching through the eyes of Locusts. Even though using a empty shell of a clone as a proxy wouldn't be much different, still Numorra would be able to touch and feel and smell the world around her as if she was a human herself. And more importantly she would be able to ask questions.

Over the past few hundred years serving as a chief subordinate of the swarm Empress has made Numorra more interested in Humans other then just viewing them as a weaker species that the Zerg manage like a hunter managing the population of elk or deer. Numorras interest's have turned into a sort of fascination that only grows as she watches through the locust eyes, and now she has an opportunity to get a much closer look even if it's through a remote controlled body.

 **"I will learn as much as I can. And as per our empresses orders I will only interfere with the Humans and Faunus only as necessary."**

Numorra quickly returned to the Hive cluster taking no more than a half hour as the Overlord exited the planets atmosphere, unimpeded by the air resistance it quickly crossed the continent and descended back into the layer of air covering the planet like a blazing comet. The second gen Overlord easily resisted the heat friction with its psi-armor reinforcing its body.

The Overlord descended over the buried form of Solus and entered into one of a dozen massive skyscraper sized hollow towers that lead into the underground hangers. Before the Overlord even landed Numorra jumped out stretching out her wings and glided down to the creep covered floor and from there it was a short jog through the hive cluster to reach the Evolution chamber.

As Numorra entered the chamber she saw a half dozen evo-masters working on a equal number of cocoons each with a green transparent organic membrane showing the bodys of nine identical people, all Faunus. As she continued moving through the bio lab Numorra saw many more cocoons each with groups of identical clones, some of Humans others of Faunus, eventually she came to a chamber where a few empty cocoons were waiting along with evolution master.

"Brood queen Numorra." The evolution master greeted in monotone. "I will assist, in creating the desired form of your puppet."

Numorra made a tiny grin as she walked closer and started the process of customizing her human dolls form. Numorra took her time looking through all of the selections of genes that change the bodies qualities such as height, skin color, face structure, body build and all the many internal functions that improved the bodies functions.

The Zerg swarm had had two hundred years to perfect the process of categorizing and quantifying the genes of many life forms and creating a date base of them, including human genes. So creating a body was not that hard. The difficulty came when the world of Remnant was found baring a second Human population that while on the surface looked similar to those on Earth but in their genes they were found to be quite different although similar.

It was these difference,s in the humans and Faunus of Remnant genetic make up that Solus and his evolution masters found were responsible for gifting them with the power of Aura and their unique Semblances.

And most disturbingly or interestingly many, but not all of the genes, that were unique to the Humans and Faunus of Remnant were very similar to those found in the deep genetic makeup of 'Ellen' the Swarm empress. This clearly showed a genetic link between the Valkyrur of Earth and the people of Remnant even though why and how this is the case is still very much a mystery.

From the information provided by the samples taken from the Humans and Faunus, Solus was able to speculate that all Humans and Faunus of Remnant have the ability to have a Aura and Semblance but yet not all can. From their long investigation of Ellen's essence, Abastein and the other Evolution masters of the swarm have discovered that all psionic powers _'partly'_ come from the biological structure of DNA _'essence'_ on the molecular and atomic to the subatomic scales, all of it interacting with the universe on the quantum level, which falls in line with Ellens theory that psionic powers link and connect life forms to the universe itself in someway.

It is these precise structures of the molecules and atoms interacting with the universe on the quantum level that give, Protoss, Zerg and Khaydarin crystals their psionic power's. Or at least that's the theory.

But as Ellen and Abastein have discovered there is also a mental and spiritual aspect to Psionic powers that are 'far' harder to understand and will take the swarm many more years of experimenting to fully understand.

However this world of Remnant may just be the key to understanding that other half of psionic abilities.

* * *

Beyond the boundaries of the universe where the concept of Time, Space, Form and Shape, even Thought and Memories have no meaning the higher dimensional 'being' watched as the actors of its play go about their planning and scheming, and daily lives. All of them slowly moving forwards to the appointed day of fate.

 ** _"Who will win in the end... Ellen or...,"_** Psyon thought as it continued to watch the current point in time as events unfold like a movie to it.

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Note**

Also I've been seeing that more people are favoriting and Following my story. (Both the first and second stages) Glad to see you all enjoying it, also I just wanted to get it out there that I'm really glad my story (is enjoyable to all of you) so thanks for Favoriting, Following, and Reviewing. It means that I do not suck and gives me confidence to move forward with the story.

All that said I do want to let all of you know ahead of time that I will... (in all likelihood) start another story. Yeah since it doesn't look like the RWBY story will not be done anytime soon I thought I would kill time with some other story that has nothing to do with Ellen or her universe.

I 'wont' be ending [Zerg Swarm Empress] but just delaying it from the end of StarCraft 1 Brood war since that's the point in time I planned starting the inserting the main RWBY story. But I will have a few chapters dedicated to explaining some further back story of how the Zerg presence on Remnant changes a few things. Now to be original and not steal from other fanfic writers I won't be having some of my OC's being in team RWBY but they will be in Beacon academy and will... change a few things lets just say.

Also I want to flush out the characters of some of my Zerg OC's while also creating a story that builds up to the really interesting stuff so after this Remnant arc is done the focus will shift to the other high ranking Brood Queens and their adventures with the Protoss and Overmind Swarm, and then another of them with The Covenant, and the start of major hostilities between the UNSC and Ellen's swarm which will also have the explanation of how the Spartan program changed. You know because of the Zerg. But everything may or may not be in THAT order.

Then the Starcraft 1 story proper should start if things go as planned?!.


	9. Chapter 9

[Shadow horror] Good idea with the Khaydarin crystals, gives me a idea for a new structure.

* * *

[Darkness is complete] Are you being sarcastic? or serious. If your being serious you just gave me a idea for the final battle or something along those lines... he he he. Thanks for the input.

* * *

Also just picking your brains here but i've been thinking about adding the [Sprite of fire] and her crew from [Halo Wars] to my story. But considering that I already have a lot of characters and plotlines to write in here i'm [50/50] on the matter. If you want to see Captain Cutter, Serina, professor Anders, Spartan's Jerome-092, Douglas-042, Alice-130 in my story then please say so.

Also I didn't add Sergeant John Forge to the list because the events of Halo wars will happen before I insert them into my story so he'll still die, and none of the changes in the story will change that... **unless you want me to**. I could ' _fudge'_ something with Anders using the shield worlds teleporter system or a remote detonation system or something. I already have something planned for the [Spirit of fire] landing on Remnant, so if you want to see them in my story let me know.

* * *

"Talk"

'Thought'

 **"Telepathy"**

(Sound-or-effect)

* * *

Also thers a adult scene in this chapter but its mostly short and leaves most of what happened up to you

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

 **Boot Camp and Politics**

 **Four miles outside of Aranna**

 **6:00 AM early morning just before dawn.**

In the still shadow of morning upon a grassy field dotted with flowers a hole opened in the air and from it fell a human girl with fiery red shoulder length hair and green eyes wearing a pure white silk dress and leather shoes and silk socks. She landed on the grass still wet from the morning dew followed shortly after by a pair of leather suitcases dropping behind her, their weight depressing into the ground a little.

The girl took in a deep breath as if it was her first, drinking in the cool morning air. There was a downward gust of wind as the fully stealthed Abyss Ray rows up higher returning to the hive cluster. The wind made the girls hair flutter about as she remained focused on the new sensations she was feeling around herself.

The feeling of the clothing on her body, the contained pressure of the shoes, the darkness all around her that her eyes quickly adapted to thanks to the Faunus essence that had also been incorporated into the body which gave it night vision and a sharper sense of smell and taste.

Numorra continued to take in the new sensations of her new remote presence body, and decided to take off her shoes and socks to feel the cold wet grass and ground on her exposed feet. For as long as she could remember her real body had been covered in a armored exo-armor which protected her, but now that the brood queen thinks about it the armor also prevented her from feeling the surrounding world the same way as humans or even her own empress does.

The realization that this is how empress Ellen feels the world around her when not wearing her Praetorian armor flashed through Numorra's mind as she took in the wetness of the ground from the morning dew and the feeling of the slivers of grass between her toes, all while her real body remains in a state of sleep in her chambers back at the hive cluster. Both the clone human body and her body connected by her telepathic powers alone.

After taking the sensation of the moment in Numorra put her socks and shoes back one and looked across the wide open fields to the distant human city a good many miles away from her. Vast plain's of grass and scattered farm land between her and her current destination.

The plan for integrating herself into the local human population was somewhat simple create a financial base by turning in the contents of the two suitcases and join the military of the human nation of Xanadu named the knight guards.

Information for doing such had been gleaned from the humans when had been the temporary guests of the Zerg. The members of the military however were forced to fight in the hive clusters arena, but all such memories have been purged from the humans minds by special parasites made for such.

Numorra picked up the two large leathery suitcases actually made of creep like her shoes but formed to look like the leather material humans use beginning her long walk to the human city.

* * *

 **North western Edge of Aranna**

 **Knight guard fortress Rasenden**

 **6:42 AM**

As the suns light illuminated the horizon twelve knight-guards stood at their post's upon the fortress walls the young light reflecting off their armor as they scan the plains surrounding the capital city. A full wall enclosed Xanadu's capital city of Aranna from three sides except from the south which the sea covered but their were always Grimm milling about the area.

Every town in Xanadu was guarded and protected like the capital to a lesser degree and had walls to protect them, and small groups of mounted knight guards patrolled the roads and area's between every settlement, but still the sear amount of land that Xanadu covered menet that it was impossible to keep every crack and crevice clear of Grimm. Add to that the fact that no matter the efforts of the knight-guards to exterminate the Grimm within Xanadu their population never seems to drop below a certain number.

This meant that at best the people of Xanadu had to always be wary of Grimm when ever they leave the walls to travel or when harvesting the crops. And also ment the knight guards had to always be on their guard for one never knew when a Grimm would attack weather it be a Beowolf or a giant Nevermore swooping out of the sky, although those were thankfully very rare. If giant Nevermores were common, Xanadu would have never been founded in the first place.

One of the knight-guard's on patrol yawned at the pleasant peace as he turned around and walked along the crenulated battlements, his speare's wooden pole dully thudding against the stone ground of the fortress wall. For a moment he glanced inwards to the inner courtyard where the twenty squire's in four rows of five were currently being drilled by the Rasenden fortress commander and general, Reolin Varn who for some ungodly reason enjoy's personally training or ' _torturing'_ the new recruit's who start at the rank of squire.

The knight guard winced at his own memories of such training and gave a silent prayer for the new bloods. The old commander may be harsh with his training methods but all his men respected him because they eventually understand the general is only looking out for their best interest by properly preparing them for the battlefield.

Down in the courtyard below a aged but muscular bald man lead the new squiers around the running track.

"Run, run, run, keep those legs of yours moving squire's because if you think the Grimm will let you have a breather then you are already a Ursa's lunch!." Yalled the man with gusto as he lead the younger trainees around the courtyard.

This after having them up by 6:00 AM and doing two hundred squats, followed by two hundred jumping jacks followed by ten minutes of mock combat training against straw dummy's, followed by some one on one hand to hand combat drills which was further followed by bow and arrow training, then ten laps around the courtyard trak and then doing it all over again three times! with few rests in between.

"Huh, huh I,(deep breath) I can't... feel my, (deep breath) legs," panted Nick as he like all the other squires and his siblings sweated exhaustively as they ran the track while internally cursing Titus for suckering them into this hell.

After running around the inner courtyard another two times general Varn called the squires to halt and take a rest for a while. The three siblings along with the rest of the recruites dropped to the ground all of them trying to catch their breath.

As the squires all rested, knight-guard general Varn eyed the three recruits who his old friend captain Titus had handed over to his _'gentle'_ care with the full intention to molding them into knight-guards just like their father. But Reolin who had trained thousands of knight-guards across his thirty years of being a instructor and the commander of the Rasenden fortress was more than a little skeptical about their chances.

But the fact that they already had their auras unlocked and had full use of their semblance's was certainly a plus but the major reason many knight guard recruits fail their training and give up was more because of the mental strain. Being able to take the intense training regimen was a sign of having or developed a strong will to persevere through adversity and such was critical for developing ones aura. Although it is possible for one's aura to be unlocked by another that had already done so, it was long considered a shameful act to do so, or to have one's aura awakened this way because it was seen as the easy way.

That and it was expected and needed in knight guards to have the mental and spiritual fortitude to face the monsters of Grimm in a all out live or die battle, otherwise there would just be unnecessary loss of life from those not ready or unsuited for the battlefield. And through his 60 years of life, 40 of which were spent in the knight guards, Reolin has seen enough meaningless deaths, which is why the training he gives the new squiers is so difficult but always creates above average soldiers.

'Heh well only time will tell?' the old soldier mused.

* * *

 **Count Barry's private Villa outside Aranna**.

 **8:01 AM**

Duke stretched his arms as he sat up and got out of bed, it being one of the most comfortable beds he's ever slept in. Tealle and Lav were already up and putting their shoes on so Duke followed suit.

The three Faunus left the guest bed room and were greeted by one of the servant's who led them to the rather large and extravagantly decorated kitchen where Brans Lasten their charge was already sitting eating his morning breakfast.

"Ah it's about time you all got up," Brans said as he took another bit of his food.

"Morning,"Lav replied in a cherry voice as he Tealle and Duke sat at a opposing table.

"So what are we doing today?" Duke said absently minded as two maids brought them the same meal as Brans had, a simple plate of eggs, sausage, milk, with two slices of toast and some jelly, with a side of warm buns and butter in a basket set at the center of the table.

The normally shy Tealle was surprisingly the first to dig into her plate as the trip over the Fanged mountains must have emptied her out and since she's only had that Oolong tea from yesterday to fill the void in her stomach. Duke and Lav started biting into their food even as they admired their companion. Tealle was normally shy and reserved despite being a deadly shot with a bow but if it was one thing that could make her 'active' it was good food.

Ever since Duke and Lav found her in a locked house at the edge of the Alcon village when they were kids. She had been withdrawn and shy to everyone except them.

Probably because they talked with her and gave her food when they started coming by everyday despite their parents protests to stay away from the building where Tealle's family and twenty others had been quarantined and eventually were killed by a disease that had hit the village. The village elders ordered that the infected be quarantined to keep the disease from spreading further. Tealle was the only one to leave the building alive and seemingly developed a immunity to the disease or had just been lucky.

After Tealle was cleared of being infected by the village doctors she moved in with Duke and his family and she and Duke became something like brother and sister over the years as they grew up. And after puberty hit them Lav started to see Tealle in a 'different' way then just a friend but she always shot him down when ever he tried to ask her out or tried to woo her. Duke thought this was always just part friendly teasing on Tella's part but after getting Tealle to open up more about it she said 'in few words' she liked him more which put a big disappointed look on Lav's face as he sighed with a deflated heart. But the eternal ladies man just blew it off after word and continued his search for 'his perfect lady' as he would put it.

Brans finished his drink something called coffee which made him felt more energized and replied.

"Well since we have a few days to kill as it were. I purpose that we take the time to learn more about our possible trading partners by looking about their fair city."

Lave thought as he enjoyed the aroma of the coffee and replied. "Should we split up or go about the city together."

Bran's stammered at the thought of being separated from his bodyguards. "Ouf. What. Of course not. Your all here to guard me are you not, so do your jobs and stay with me as I have a good look at the city."

"Very well sir," Duke replied as he continued his meal.

After finishing off their meals the four Faunus had a meeting with Count Barry who was already at his office heard at work signing all the documents needed to officially meet with the Xanadu council. Count Barry leminted that he could not give his guests a personal tour of the capital but arranged that they have a proper guide and after words they took a carriage to the city, Tealle sitting beside Duke and Lav sharing a set beside Bran's.

The carriage rolled across the dirt roads passing many farms and great swaths of land, escorted by ten men on horseback. The trip was uneventful as as they traversed the open fields many taken up by large farms that mostly made up Xanadu,s topography.

After about a hour of riding across the stone covered road through countryside they finally reached the capital city they had arrived in the day before. This time entering the front gate of the city which was a hive of activity as hundreds of people walked by foot or, rode on horseback or in their own carriages or on horse drawn carts transporting goods into and out of the city. A great many people entered and exited the stone gate almost all the time. The capital port city of Aranna also acts as a major trade port connecting to the few other coastal nations on the south western points of the continent all of which were mostly isolated from one another by the terran and Grimm leaving the ocean and ships as the only safe means to reach one another, despite the sea Grimm that occasionally attacked ships.

As the royal carriage passed, the people recognising the royal insignia and parted letting it pass through the gate while the twenty or so guards that protected the cities front entrance eyed the carriage making sure nothing happens to the guests of his highness.

Tealle looked out the window as they entered the city proper watching the people pass by and observing the tall buildings most at least double the size of the ones in her village.

The city of Aranna was a rather large city for the age and it was the only city in Xanadu and the capital. This also meant that it was the crown jewel of Xanadu and where many people go to do a great many things from trading and selling goods to applying to new jobs, going to collage and other special schools to learn how to do a wide variety of jobs including learning to play musical instruments, blacksmithing, dancing, ship and building construction and medical jobs like doctors and nurses, and scientists among other jobs and disciplines and of course knight-guard recruitment and training at the local fortress, one of four major military forts in Xanadu. The city of Aranna was the beating heart of Xanadu and if someone from earth could have seen it they would have recognized it as looking very much like but not completely link a british or american city from the late 1890's.

The Faunus looked on in wonderment as the cities true size and scale became more apparent as the four mile long main street came into view filled with hundreds of carriages and thousands of people. Tealle wondered if their own village could become a nation as great as Xanadu someday but as she looked out the window admiring the city when she for some reason felt her instinct's flare and the heir on the back of her neck stood on end. Poking her head out the carriage window Tealle looked around for a few moments before spotting a young girl with fiery red hair nearby amongst the crowd who seemed to be the source of the odd feeling. She wore a white dress carrying two rather large suitcases.

"Tealle what are you doing? get back in the carriage," stated Duke as the wolfett sat back down.

"Anything wrong?" Lav asked as Brans raised a eyebrow at the sudden odd behavior.

Tealle sat down with a sigh on her face. "It's nothing. I just... felt something odd that's all."

Duke and Lav shared a look of concern between themselves as that's one of the the longest sentences Tealle had formed in a long time. So something must be up they thought together.

 **With Numorra**

Numorra walked along the main street of the city as she observed everything around her. For a brief moment she eyed a Faunus girl staring at her from a carriage recognizing her as Tealle from the Faunus party that arrived yesterday.

'Odd?' Numorra thought as she watched the carriage disappear into the crowds of the city.

Continuing along her way Numorra walked through the streets slowly making her way to a place she could get some local currency from. Unlike the dress Numorra wore (which was created by silk weaving bio-fabracaters whose essence was created from spiders) money was one thing that had to be gained through trade and since every nation has their own economy, which is especially true for the nations on Remnant who are more isolated from those on on Earth.

Walking along something of interest caught Numorra's eye and she stopped at in front of a restaurant where with in a few dozen people were seated and eating. But what caught her eye was the large cake and trays of sweets laid out by the window.

Know doubt set their to entice customers to come in.

Numorra felt her stomach gurgle feeling her human puppet required sustenance but knowing the sweet cake was only a type of candy not really a nutritious food. Even so for some reason Numorra felt a ' _urg'_ that was different then normal hunger, it was more like she wanted to try the cake simply to sat her desire to know what it tastes like.

Numorra sighed knowing that she still needed money to buy anything. Well that wasn't true as Numorra could easily just bash the window in and steal the sweets but that would attract unwanted attention so the brood queen in human form banished such thoughts from her mind shaking her head. Recovering her focus Numorra got back to her current objective.

A few minutes later Numorra reached her destination by the docks. The boat shop owned by Mell and his sister Vio. Numorra entered the boat shop to see it packed with people as they all looked about the shelves for anything they liked. Numorra made her way to the counter where Vio greeted her.

"Hello" the human girl greeted happily as she then raised a eyebrow as Numorra placed both large suitcases on the counter the wood creaking as it supported the weight of the heavy cases.

"I would like to exchange these for money," Numorra said. The simple reason she had come to the Mell and his sisters boat shop was simple familiarity and that she wanted to meat the two face to face so to speak.

Vio watched Numorra as she grabbed one of the suitcases and unzipped it. The violet heard girl mouth gaped open eyes wide in awe at the pile of gold and Silver, ingots and gemstone's that filled the leather case to capacity some spilling out.

"Uuh... could? you wait a moment," Vio said almost dumbfounded her mouth still agap.

Numorra shook her head yes and Vio walked off for a while and after some time she returned with her brother Mell in tow.

"Hello miss..." Mell asked as his sister almost pulled him along.

The brood queen had anticipated such a question understanding the need for a name that was... _more human like_ to maintain her cover and had done so while she was in transeat in the Abyss-Ray. The name she came up with was simple and based on her real name.

"Numia," the redhead replied as Mell thought the name was somewhat odd but a customer is a customer."

"Miss Numia, my sister told me that you wish to sell some... _precious metals_?", Mell said quieter as large amounts of such things attract unscrupulous people.

Numia nodded. "Yes. The contents of both these cases."

Mell guestered and Numia followed over into a walled off room separated from the normal counter by walls beside the normal checkout area so he could examine the value of their contents in private. Shutting the door behind her Numia lifted both suitcases onto the table separating the room into two halves. Mell unzipped the two suitcases emptied them out and started examining the contents. Over the course of the next thirty minutes Mell took his time carefully looking the gemstones over for any impurities with a Jeweler's Loupe. A small magnification device used by jewelers to look for the minute qualities of gems to asses their value. After that he took the ingots of Gold and Silver one by one and put some acid on them to determine their purity level.

Numia carefully watching the man work as she stood on the other side of the enclosed counter area, wondering how long it took for him to learn to do what he's doing. Mell let out a satisfied breath already thinking of buyers on the Sanus continent who would practically sell a arm and a leg for this much gold, silver and gemstones of this purity let alone amount.

"This is all worth... a considerable amount," Mell said astonished at the amount of wealth laying before him. The counter between them practically overflowing with the valuable's.

Mell started to sigh at what he had to say next but he always delt honestly with his customers _'unlike his father'_. "And well... to be honest I can't give you a equal or full amount of money for... _all_ of this maybe one case." the man confessed pushing up his glasses. Partly wondering how such a young woman could obtain such a amount of gems and precious metals in the first place.

The simple truth was that when excavating the hive cluster the drones had come across the gold and silver by chance. And the gems were found in some underground caves when Racorra came across them while out hunting Grimm.

The precious gems and metals were of no value to Zerg, but anticipating the need of such things Solus had them gathered into a large horde chamber, and after Numorra expressed an interest to learn more about the humans of Xanadu the Alpha Behemoth had the drones purify the Silver and gold in a acid bath before having them compacted together into ingots and the gems were cut with their claws into more valuable forms. It was actually quite surprising that the Drones could work with such precision on such small things given their size.

"That's fine. But how much could you give me instead?" The redhead asked.

Mell thought a moment going over to the other side of the room and pulling out a pencil and paper and started doing the math on the the current value of these items both here in Xanadu and overseas on Sanus going roughly based on his own memory of their value.

Time passed as Numia patiently waited and watched the green haired man do up the math, occasionally glancing at the Grandfather Clock that ticked and tocked along the far wall as she thought of the time and effort he put into learning the skills of his trade while she and most Zerg for the most part, only developed their abilities of killing and fighting with the exception of the virtual world empress Ellen had ordered the building of. It was the first time the Zerg as a species created something for entertainment but the virtual zerg world was also a lot more than that as it was used for a great manu uses ranging from the practical to the purely entertaining. But beyond that it was also a place for the self aware Zerg queens and brood queens to create and develop the concept of the Zerg being world builders and the creators of life. Something the empress and many other zerg view as the next step in the over all evolution of the Zerg as a species.

Eventually Mell completed his math check and promptly left but quickly returned with a large suitcase of his own placing it on the counter and opening it. Filling it was a pile of paper money used as currency in Xanadu which caught the eye someone watching from outside who thanks to their Semblance could see through walls, 'among other things'.

"Sorry for the wait. This will cover the value of everything in one of the your suitcases," Mell said with a irritated sigh. He wished someone would invent a device that can calculate math and numbers faster so he didn't have to to it with a pen and paper, math was not his strong suit but he got by.

"That will be fine. Could you recommend me another place to sell the rest of my..."Numia took a moment to phrase her words better. "Goods."

"Yes I do know of a few places here in Aranna," Mell replied thoughtfully as he grabbed a pen and paper and jotted down a address of a bank he had worked with in the past.

Numia thanked Mell as she pocketed the piece of paper and both of them refilled both suitcases with their contents and then Numia exchanged one for the suit case full of money Mell brought her in payment ending their transaction.

"Thank you for the business," Mell thanked as his sister came into the sealed off room after having rung up the other customers as Numia left with one suitcase still full with gold and silver and gems and the other filled with money.

As soon as they were alone Vio dropped the nice counter girl act. One of the reasons she was forced to join her brother on his expedition to the continent of Avalon was her rather abrasive personality and choice of... language. The other being that she agreed (For the most part) with her brother on how to do business.

"Damn that girl was loaded. Where do you think she get all that stuff... hoo if I had that much gold i,ed-," Vio exclaimed trialing off with a mix of profanity and greed in her words that she shared with her father but unlike him she still felt empathy for others and wasn't the sort to stab people in the back just to make a extra penny so to speak. A quality she shares with her brother and their dearly departed mother.

Mell sighed at his sisters continuing foul language, at least she keeps up a professional front for the customers. "It is strange for a young women like her to be carrying around a large amount of precious gems and metals like that? Maybe she comes from of nobility?" Mell wondered out loud as he absent mindedly reached out to grab the suitcase they had bought off Numia. He slid the suitcase off the counter and his arm and the suitcase both were pulled down hitting the floor with a loud thump. Mell grabbed the suitcase with both hands this time and with a grunt lifted it, putting most of his effort into just holding it up "Huh... ahh, this is heavy."

Vio looked at her silly brother with a amused expression as he strained himself doing a crab walk as he took the suitcase to the safe in the lower level. "You do know how heavy gold is right. And that suit case was pack?!-" Vio froze mid sentence when a flash of realization shot through her mind. 'Wait, if my brother could barely carry one of those suitcases how could ' _that girl'_ carry two of them?' she wondered.

Outside Numia walked along the street stopping at a crossway to look at the piece of paper Mell had given her. She asked a passerby where the address is located and continued along her way but as she continued on her way her instincts told her someone was following her.

'Hmph, can't have that now can we, hmm on the other hand maybe I can have a little fun with him first,' the brood queen in human form mused as she decided to deal with the person following her but only after she had some fun first.

At a ally way she stopped taking out the piece of paper again and looked at it as the cloaked figure some twenty meters away watched as the person he thought was easy prey went down the alley to go through a shortcut.

'Heh, out of towners this will be easy,' the man thought as he followed the woman using his semblance to see through the two cases one full of money and the other full of greatly valuable gold, silver and gemstones, thinking it was his lucky day to find a pretty mark that was also loaded.

[Crash] The two suitcases were thrown to the side as the cloaked man threw the girl against the shadowed alley.

"He he you look tasty little girly what brings you to my neck of the woods," the perverted man questioned as he held Numia arms against the cold stonewall, the sun's light barley shining through between the buildings.

"Huah!, Stop it. Please let me go," Numia pleaded in a innocent voice as the mans glowing eyes sweeping up and down her body as if he could see through her clothing.

"Heh no can do little miss. Its been awhile since I had a pretty mark like you come along." The man replied as his hands reached down grabbing the bottom hem of Numia's dress and pulled it up pulling the white dress up and over her head and arms wrapping them up and exposing her lower body.

"Ho ho wow! risqué much," he vulgar man exclaimed as he saw without his abilities that Numia lacked any underwear or a bra.

Numia winched as she felt him fondling her body. The experience was not all that unpleasant but the man was rough as he played with her body and he became more aroused as Numia made all manner of noises as she felt things she never though she would feel before. After the fondling was over with the man unzipped his pants and started getting serious.

Outside the ally as other people passed by groaning and other muffled sounds were barely heard. After about half a hour a loud cracking and ripping noise was heard along with a muffled scream echoing from the dark alleyway.

Some moments later Numia walked out of the ally way with some dirt and tiny blood stains on her clothes and a new experience under her belt as a _'woman'._

"Hmm... I may be inexperienced in the matters of sex but... I give you a 4 out of 10," she mumbled to herself continuing on her way.

* * *

 **With Duke**

 **Aranna Shopping district**

Where ever they went the Faunus group got looks from the people around them. Most were just interested in the new novel arrivals to their city and some even recognized them from yesterday when they first arrived with Mell and Vio. Some others however looked rather offended that Faunus were in their city.

"Some people are just hard headed I guess." Duke said with a sigh as the four Faunus in the royal carriage continued along to their next destination.

The three Rangers were at the whim of their charge and his new guides lead them through the city looking going from shop to shop ranging from food stands to jewelry to trinkets to weapons stands along the marketplace. Including a few sweet shops selling a wide variety of candies which caught the eyes of one Faunus wolf girl who shot both Duke and Lav with the old cute eyes attack.

"Here," Duke said handing Tealle a box of chocolates which she quickly took and started devouring with a grin on her face.

"Hmmm!" was the only expression she made as she greedly devoured the chocolats herself as Lav and Duke simply admired their friends appetite.

The group continued along their way arriving at the restaurant district.

The Faunus representative Brans Lasten appraising the quality of the many goods and foods of the nation along the way as well as its history which he coaxed out of their guide getting a better sense of how to form a lasting trade relationship with Xanadu.

Although most of the stuff they talked about went over Dukes head most of the time.

"How much more of this are we going to do," Lav asked with a small bit of annoyance in his voice. He had seen quite a few beautys as they traversed the city but every time when he was about to get a date Brans would have them move on to somewhere else just to talk about boring things like economics and trade routes and market value.

"Not long now, we can return to the villa after we go to one other location," the bunny eared man said as the carriage rocked side to side turning at a intersection.

Arriving at a large stone building that looked like a bank the four Faunus exited the carriage Count Barry had provided them. Upon entering the building Tealle's hair stood on end again the same as when they had passed that red head girl. The wolf eared ranger anxiously looked around quickly catching sight sight of the same red head she saw earlier. Sitting in another room separated by a window talking with a middle aged man in a suit.

"Something wrong Tealle?" Lav asked as he saw that she was tense and on edge here ears twitching.

"No. Im fine," Tealle replied flatly as she turned to Lav and Duke who were both now concerned with how on edge Tealle was. Tealle didn't wan't to cause trouble for no reason but she still had a bad feeling about that girl even though she couldn't place exactly _what_ it was. Maybe it had something to do with her semblance [Sixth sense] which gave her a supernatural sense of everything around her and even crazy good accuracy with a bow or any projectile weapon even when blindfolded, to say nothing of her evasion and tracking skills.

 **[With Numia]**

"Thank you for the business," the Bank manager thanked as he shook Numia,s hand. More than happy to take the precious items off her hands and to start a new account at his bank for the young girl.

"No thank you," Numia replied with a smile as she stood up from the chair and grabbed the now empty suitcases. Most of her mony was now in a account in the bank with the exception of a not so small amount she held on too for use latter.

As she turned around to leave Numia for a split second locked eyes with that same wolf girl from before. 'Hmm did she sense my true nature.' Numorra thought as she left the bank.

After trading in the precious metals and gems for currency Numorra could now start the next stage of her plan to learn more of Humans here on reamant and their Auras and Semblances.

It was a simple plan just join the military and learn how they train and use their auras and semblance's. But doing so required a presence in the given society or people would become suspicious of her, plus its a fact that money greases the wheels in any society.

With her financial base now in hand Numia bought the services of a public carriage to move her around as she bought some new cloths along with a sample of that cake from earlier and then she headed to a hotel room for the night as the sun was starting to drift below the horizon.

Sitting in her room on the second floor of a hotel Numia bit into her slice of cake. The taste of vanilla frosting and soft chocolate sent her taste buds into a frenzy of delight. She had never felt anything like it. It was far different from the taste of creep which had a consistency of jello crossed with beef jerky. But this, this was far different then any of that. With a restrained gusto she finished off the slice of cake bite by bite making sure to savour every last bit till it was a gone.

"Hu'a that was good. I'll have to get some more tomorrow."

With her cake finished Numia yawned feeling her Human doll was exhausted from the days events something Numorra the brood queen noted was strange considering all she did was walk around and even then the later half of the day was spent riding around in that carriage. She set her small plate onto the night stand by her bed and flopped down to rest for the night. The sweet taste of that cake and its frosting still fresh in the back of her mind and mouth.

 **[With Solus]**

 **[Hive cluster]**

 **[Desert region]**

Solus watched from the eyes of a locust as Numorra's human puppet which she named Numia collapsed onto the bed. The Behemoth noting that her real body (Still in the hive cluster) was also exhausted for some unknown reason. Probably from the stress of the new experiences which sounds odd given the stamina Zerg possess but perhaps there is a strange interplay between the human and Zerg bodys being connected as they are.

The human body Numorra is using as a puppet was grown from the essence of five different humans as apart of a experiment to try and create a superior form using the best essence. It also had Zerg enhanced strength and the ability to use psi-armor but weather or not it could develop an aura and semblance was still unknown.

If the changes to its essence did disrupt the ability to generate a aura and semblance then it would be just one example of want not to do and the evolution masters would learn and adapt their techniques to eventually replicat the powers of a aura and even semblances in zerg. And then there was the question of Dust and how it could be used by the swarm. However the only known pockets of the strange mineral was small samples taken by Yumorra from that cave network close to the Faunus village of Alcon.

However the evolution masters that had tested what sample's of Dust that were taken had reported that the four different types of Dust that had been found all have characteristics similar to that of Ragnit from back on Earth and the Khaydarin crystals taken from the Tal'darim ship during the final battle with Azrumath. With all this evidence Solus concluded that Dust is in fact a mutated or intentionally altered variation of Khaydarin crystals. All thought for what reason someone would create such a thing is beyond his understanding at the moment. However Solus is keenly aware to the fact someone with great knowledge and control over Khaydarin crystals is around and has created Dust from them. It would be prudent to keep the hive clusters defenses ready for any such attempt to attack it.

'Perhaps it is the Xel'naga' Solus thought to himself. 'If that is the case then I must inform my empress.' As Solus finished his thoughts a new voice entered his mind.

 **"Solus, what's? going on with Numorra she's been asleep for far too long?"** Racorra questioned standing over the sleeping form of her sister brood queen.

Solus then gave a quick explanation as to whats going on with Numorra.

 **"What! she did that?"** Racorra stated questioningly at her sisters actions.

 **"Numorra is attempting to learn more about the humans of this world by having direct interaction with them through a proxy human body,"** Solus clarified.

Racorra stood over the still slumbering form of her sister hardly understanding the reason for her actions, but perhaps that was why Racorra decided to follow in her footsteps.

With a sigh Racorra walked off to the evolution chamber.

 **"Solus how long will it take for a new body to be created for me and Yutorra."**

 **"Not long. The human bodies used for testing will be sufficient and are complete, only requiring a parasite network to be usable as a puppet body. Why do you want to pursue your sister?"**

The question hung in the air like a morning mist that Racorra couldn't ignore. Why is she doing this. After thinking a moment as she walked through the chitin and creep tunnels of the hiver cluster she came up with answer but was hesitant to admit it.

 **"Because... (sigh) I don't wan't to be left out of what shes doing... and... I guess i'm also interested in getting a better look at the humans. I've never really seen humans other then through the eyes of Locusts,** " Racorra admitted to herself and to her commander Solus.

With a knowing mental humm Solus replied.

 **"Just make sure to not alter things too much in the human society or to make trouble. The empress doesn't want us changing things too much if we can help it."**

 **"Understood,"** Racorra replied as she began thinking about the form her human avatar will take and then proceeded to inform her other sister of these events.

* * *

 **With Numorra**

 **Aranna hotel**

 **9 hours later** **sunrise**

Numia yawned as the morning light of the new day beamed in through the window. She at first covered her face with her arm but the rays of the sun persisted in getting to her eyelids so she pulled up the covers to block them out. She lay like this a few minutes more in the soft bed sheets before feeling something in the covers with her. Feeling around lazily she felt the warm soft body of someone else in the bed with her and as she did a hand then grabbed her and a part of the covers raised to revel the face of some girl she had never seen before but it also looked just like her body only with red eyes and jet black hair.

"Morning" the girl said.

After a second the gears in Numia's brain clicked and she jumped out of the bed taking a combat stance her gaze focused on the bed bulging bed with a startled expression on her face. "Wh- who are you" she stated some what harsley.

Slowly the covers lifted up and Numia saw that it was not just one but two young girls that had somehow got into her room and bed. One had a jet black short hair with blood red eyes the other was a brunette with hazel eyes and again both had the same face as Numia like they were triplets baring the different hair and eye colors.

"Wa? what are you doing in my room?" she quirred not relaxing her stance.

"Calm down sister it's just us," the brunette spoke with a voice that sounded somewhat familiar.

"Its us... Yutorra and Racorra," the raven black haired girl stated making Numia blink in realization.

"Ah... wh.. what are the two of you doing here and with... those bodies?" Numorra asked dumbfounded relaxing her stance.

"Well." The dark haired girl who was Racorra's puppet said as she got out of the bed. "We didn't want to miss out on your little adventure so we copied you. Flew a Abyss-Ray here and climbed in through the window."

Numia sighed Numia slumped her shoulders massaging her temples as her two sisters got out of the bed both completely naked. "Well we should get you two into proper cloths."

While also feeling somewhat perturbed that the human puppet had affected her to a extent that she felt tired after not really doing much yesterday Numorra helped her sisters get into some cloths of their own. It was a good thing that Numorra had at least bought four pair of matching clothes yesterday.

After changing Numia wore a black knee high dress with white trimming and a matching choker and twin hair bows, plus some simple black leather shoes also with white trimming. The shop owner helped her pick out the pricey matching set and the others her sisters human puppets were now waring.

Yumorra wore a green dress while Racorra wore a blue dress both with white trimming.

Yutorra looked at herself in the mirror tilting her head in curiosity at her human form feeling somewhat different than normal perhaps it was the body she was till getting used to.

After taking a solid ten minutes to get ready Numia and her sisters left their room, and took one of the primitive wire pulled elevator's down to the first floor and left out the front door. From there the brood queens in human form took a carriage to the local military fort called Rasenden.

Upon arrival Numia was impressed with the quality of the defenses, as primitive as they were; were still formitible. Along the crenulated fortress wall and battlements stood dozens of soldiers with crossbows patrolling as a few ballistas (giant crossbows) were spaced here and there. And on the ground by the front gate were more soldiers standing guard like disciplined statues their eyes wearily watching the carriage approach as well as for any possible threat no matter where it should come.

'Well they seem disciplined at lest,' Numia noted.

"Halt. Identify yourself's," one of the knight-guards called out as he gestured for the carriage driver to stop.

Numia opened the door stepping out with her sisters who's human names she had been thinking over as they traveled her. From what Numia could see the knight-guard was in his thirties and the look in his eyes showed that this man had seen real battle even as he saw the something akin to a predatory glare in Numia's eyes thanks to his long experience fighting Grimm.

"Your name miss?" the knight-guard asked somewhat unnerved by the piercing eyes of the three girls who all looked like identical triplets.

"I'm Numia reid, these are my sisters, Yuna and Rain. Were here to join the knight guard," she said flatly.

"Heh, he he he really? you little girlie's," snickered a second knight guard.

"I know we could always use more recruits but I don't think little girls like yourselfs are cut out for it," said the first knight guard.

'If we wanted to we could crush your skull little human,' Yutorra thought as she restrained herself knowing she needed to get used to the new body first.

Numia shot them a intense glare giving both men a shiver down their spines as the cold emerald green eyes stared unblinkingly at them along with the red and hazel eyes of the other two sisters before Numia explained their story.

During the trip through the city Numia had a discussion with her sisters as to their cover story so as to be convincing.

As their story gos they were the only daughters to a rich noble family but tragedy struck a few month ago when a Grimm Nevermore attacked their villa located far to the north western border by a small lake. The beast had killed almost everyone leaving the three sisters alone in the world.

After recovering their families wealth from the rubble they set out to the capital on horseback moving from village to village until arriving in Aranna a day ago. They cased in their valuables and put their money into the bank then the next day came here to join the knight guards, partly to get revenge but also to protect their nation from the eternal threat that is the monsters of Grimm.

Even though the story seemed sloppy at first glance it is because of the Zerg had already learned the in's and outs of Xanadu society that made Numorra know that her story would work as the records of noble families are somewhat lax especially so for minor noble's some of which who live out in the edges of the country where the deaths of people do to random Gimm attacks and even the occasional noble was rare but not unheard of.

The two knight guards shared a telling look before the first one turned back to the girls and rubbed the back of his neck and decided that the commander should hear of this. "Open the gate!" he shouted.

There was an audible scraping of metal on stone and the muffled clanking of metal chains as the large steel gate raised up.

"Sorry little miss but the carriage stays out here. We'll take you to the fort commander," told the first guard.

"That will be fine," Numia replied as she paid the carriage driver and followed the two guards into the fortress with her sisters in tow.

The trotting sound of horse hooves on the stone street was heard as the gate closed behind the five people entering into the main courtyard of the fortress. As they walked along Numorra glanced at the people out in the courtyard. Their were four archers training on the far end of the open space and a few others using wooden swords to bet straw dummies to death, and a few others using real swords to spare together. Others were running laps around the center area of the wide open space all of them looked between the ages of 15 to 25.

Numia's eyes darted around going from person to person until locking on to the faces of the three teenagers she observed before. They were apart of the archery group on the far end of the courtyard. As she watched them fire arrows at their targets the two guards led them up a set of stairs to a second floor balcony where a bald middle aged man watched the lot of them training sometimes occasionally yelling at the lot of them, correcting any mistakes they make that he sees.

Numia already knew of that from the mass kidnapping and experiments conducted on the people of Xanadu that this man was one of the most powerful people in the military of Xanadu.

Unconsciously Numia's body tensed up along with Rain's at the possibility that the man may remember them somehow from the arena battles which they had participated in along with this human. The two brood queens had fought this man along with other both of which were very skilled and easily matched a group of ten Hunter killers blow for blow before demolishing them despite their age. It took Numorra and her sister Racorra to best the two aged men after hours of battle. The two were very skilled and scary as a fighting pair and Numorra was putting herself and her sisters in a situation where they had to follow his orders.

To say they had goose bumps and a chill going down their spins would be an understatement.

'Please don't remember me. Please don't remember me,' Numia repeated in her mind. As she hoped the memory erasing parasites did their job well.

"General Varn we got another three recruits for ya," one of the knight guards escorting the tree sisters yelled as they approached.

Reolin Varn turned to face the five people approaching him.

"New recruit's you say," Reolin asked warily as he gave Numia and her sisters a look over. "So your wanting to join the knight-guard huh missy," the old soldier asked as his eyes scrutinised every detail of the three girls making them flinch a little as the mans steely glare washed over them.

"Ya... Your general Varn, your also known as Reolin the ghost, correct," Numia said as she recomposed herself overriding the fearful instinct's of her human body.

At the mention on his nickname Reolin smiled at the knowledgeable young girl as he crossed his arms. "Reolin the ghost he, he, he, I haven't been called that in years. Whats your name little miss," Reolin asked with a curious glare to his eyes.

"My name is Numia. Numia Reidel. And these are my sisters Yuna and Rain." the red head answered as she then explained their fabricated story.

It wasn't too unbelievable considering the Grimm stalking the outer reaches of the nation and the odd lesser nobles that on occasion build their villas out in the outer parts of the nation from time to time or venture to the outer parts of Xanadu to have some fun and even sometimes hunt Grimm for sport along with a hefty escort of body knight guards that also act as witnesses, from time to time. Reolin himself had been through such a event in his youth. The said event included a attack by twenty Beowolfs and two Boarbatusks which resulted in five knight guards losing their life's while the noble cowered behind a fallen tree and Reolin had to save his little butt.

It was this event that earned him the nickname of ghost dew to his semblance which allowed him to slay most of the Grimm with ease while the other half of them were being finished off by his best friend a one Titus Arestrom who also earned his own nickname of Titus the weight. After that Reolin and Titus were both bumped up in rank to lieutenant, know doubt done at the behest of the thankful noble.

"Hmm," Reolin hummed as he thought the story over. "Very well you may join the other recruits. But if you don't match up to our standards your out. Understand," he proclaimed firmly.

If she was a actual human Numia may have been more intimidated by that proclamation. "Understood sir."

"Heh he. Good now follow me we need to get you three in proper clothes. Don't want those pretty dresses of yours getting dirty now do we," general Varn said as he walked off to the squires quarters followed by the three sisters.

 **With Pastel, Nick, Storm.**

Despite being placed into separate groups today each conducting their own training it still was just as grualling as yesterday more jumping jacks more jogging more hand to hand and mock sword training all starting at the crack of dawn.

Oh and there was the archery which almost everyone sucked at save a few who had the luck of being trained already or having natural talent.

Nick pulled back his bow string taking a few moments to aim before letting loose the arrow sending it flying down range only to hit the bottom of the target 55 feet distant.

"Ah... I suck," Nick complained as another arrow was sent down range by his sister hitting the dead center of her target. "How the hell are you so good sis."

The silver haired girl shrugged at the question as she readied another arrow sending it down range and again hitting near the center of the target. "Guess i'm just a natural," she replied s her brother sighed as their other sibling Pastel who was close by also shooting at the targets and like his sister was a natural at it.

As the Theson siblings continued to train in archery their training instructor returned and yalled in the top of his lungs calling all the squiers together. Quickly they all ran to the man and stood in attention in five lines before him.

"Good time squires your learning."General Varn shouted in a pleased tone at the quick and disciplined hussle of the squires to get into a proper formation. "Now I've called you together to introduce some more fresh recruits," he said gesturing to the three teenage girls standing to his right.

The three Theson siblings along with all the other squires eyed the girls in the standard training uniforme they all were waring. Despite the simple white shirt, brown pants and boots they were wearing the girls seemed to be all the same, beautiful and alluring attracting the attention of the boys.

Numia looked the other squires over for reactions before speaking, "Hello i'm Numia and these are my sisters, Rain and Yuna." Numorra paused a moment to think of better words to brake the ice with her fellow recruits then just a simple introduction. "I hope we all serve our nation gloriously in battle."

The other squiers started giving suppressed laughs as Numia blushed with a awkward feeling that she said something stupid. With a sigh Numia realized that she had a long way to go to until she fully understood humans.

General Varn snorted with a amused smile at the patriotic but odd words. "Heh... I like the enthusiasm little miss but there's no need for propaganda here. Now join the rest of your fellow squiers."

Following the generals order the three zerg brood queens in human form joined the others in formation.

"Now then,"General Varn continued. "sinch we have three more recruits well start over with drills today."

There was a silent collective _sigh_ from most of the squiers as they all started jogging around the courtyard yet again, this time with the three Riedel girls joining them. General Varn ran in front of the group yalling lyrics to a not too motivating song.

 _"Beowoulf chasing me through the woods,"_ General Varn shouted as the squires unenthusiastically repeated his words.

 _"Lost my sword and shield down a ravine."_

 _"Don't care, don't know where i'm runnin to."_

 _"Never been this deep in tha woods."_

The... song as it could be called continued for another ten laps around the courtyard followed by the more normal routine of exercising with different rep types and then sparing, beating straw dummies and lastly archery then doing it all over again three times.

Hours later the squiers were all but fainted on the ground. Everyone except general Varn was too exhausted to notice that the triplets looked rather winded but other then that non to exhausted.

Noticing the general eyeing them the three brood queens a believable answer. "We.. got a lot of stamina because we..." Numia said trailing off.

"...We ran a lot in the open fields around our villa chasing each other..." Yuna said finishing her sisters sentence.

"Uh huh our parents said it was good practice for running away from Grimm," Rain ended the explanation with something of a joke.

General Varn raised a eyebrow and satisfied grunt turning back to the other squires all of whom were gasping for air and trying to to vent the internal heat built up from the harty training.

After that the squires all moved to the three arena'a in the middle of the courtyard and took turns sparring one on one. Most of the boys were better at it then the few female squiers with the exception of the Reidel sisters.

Rain through a boy over her shoulder knocking the wind out of him as he land on his back with a grunt

"Do you wish to continue," Rain said with a pleased look on her face standing triumphant over the boy.

"No...(pained grunt) I give up," the boy replied as he started to pick himself up off the ground holding his brushed ribs and ego.

Rain served the other squires left after her little rampage which left half of them with minor injuries and the most of the others were too afraid to get in the ring with her.

 **"Don't over do it Racorra,"** Numia projected while in the middle of her own match in a second arena close by.

 **"Relax sister. The humans will just see me as a gifted and strong and will respect me more,"** Rain replied **.**

 **"Are you implying that your better than us,"** Yuna interjected turning her gaze to her sisters smarking face."

 **"No. I just refuse play the cliche weakling girl just to maintain my human faced,"** Rain answered **. "If i'm going to fight i'm going to go all out."**

In her own arena Numia dodged to the side and struck out with a right jab hitting her opponent in the face and then followed up with a upper cut and ended the match with a roundhouse kick that sent her opponent flying out of the arena **, "Just stick to the plan and maintain cover."**

 **"OK,"** Rain replied as she rolled her eyes as she started to exited the arena seeing that none of the remaining squiers were willing to get in with her after the beating she gave the others. But just as she set her hand on the boundary rope someone jumped in the arena.

"What are you tired already," A voice called out from behind her. Turing around Racorra saw Pastel and his two siblings cheering him on from the sidelines behind him.

* * *

Rain smirked as she took a few steps closer to the new challenger. "No im just getting warmed up," Rain stated as she took a moment to give her opponente a closer look.

All three Theson siblings looked the same age but the one in the ring with Rain seemed to be more mature maybe the oldest barring a month or two. Racorra wasn't really interested in such differences but the young boy did look as though he had been in a few fights before unlike all the other squiers barring Racorras sisters and the three Theson siblings.

General Varn looked over the two fighters over him serving as referee for the hand to hand fights. "Start," he said.

Instantly both squiers charged throwing a flurry of punches at each other, doudging parrying, and deflecting and weaving around each others attacks. But Rain's reaction time was faster allowing her to catch a straight punch and squeezed Pastels fist making the boy winch at the pressure on his hand. Then from out of nowhere Rain got hit in the jaw making her release him and jump back up in surprise and shaking her head in confusion as to how he got a hit in a blind spot.

Pastel started grinning as he charged in again keeping the pressure on.

Rain backed up as she dodged right and left hooks followed by a double faint that was followed by a uppercut kick that should have missed but hit her in the jaw _'again'._

"Aw the hell," Rain exclaimed in frustration rubbing her bleeding mouth as she started to loose her cool.

Rain charged first this time and let loose with a series of rapid punches and kicks at the edge of her range making sure to keep the boy at the range she wants but again he got a hit in to her gut winding her for a moment.

'Uuh, hu. This freaking weak body,' Racorra cursed feeling the pain of the kick straight to her midsection. The brood queen even in control of a human body that was enhanced believed herself to be stronger then a human but here she was getting her ass kicked by a sub adult, if it was that captain Titus or general Varn it would be different as she already know's their powerful and well experienced in combat from many years of fighting Grimm but for this... this... kid to out fighting her.

Fedup at this point Rain gathered her psionic power and activated her psi-armor.

Pastel sensing something was coming backed off and readied himself. Numia, Yuna and the other squiers gaped in awe as Rain's body started glowing and underwent a ' _transformation'_. First glowing with a series of long ornate scar like markings that followed the natural curves and contours of her body but what was the most astonishing was the black wolf ears and tail that popped out of the top of her head and back of her pants making look just like a Faunus.

'Huh... that's new,' Racorra noted as she felt power well up in her human puppet.

Resuming her match Rain jumped forward with greater speed then before and kicked mid air. Pastel crossed his arms and activated his aura but was still sent flying across the ring.

"Ah? what the hell!" one of the other squiers said in great surprise as he and the others watched Pastel fly across the roped off arena.

"Di- did she turn into a Faunus, another of the squiers stammered."

"Get up bro you can't loose," Nick shouted to his big brother while thier sister Storm was agap at the event.

General Varn simply watched with a raised eyebrow at the sudden transformation of one of his squiers. He glanced back to some of the guards on the wall who at this stage had taken more of a interest in the squiers sparring match. The general shook his head at his soldiers telling them silently to not interfere and they nodded in understanding and backed off.

"I don't know what's going on but this _feels_ GREAT!" Rain shouted as she jumped in the air to land upon Pastel.

"Brother!- Move" shouted the other Theson siblings as Pastel rolled to one side barely avoiding the leaping attack.

Pastel stood back up and dusted his cloths off. "Ok... ok thats... a unusual semblance little Faunus girl _or_ what ever you are."

"Yeah I know." Rain replied. 'I didn't expect the ears and tail though,' she thought.

With a smirk from both combatants the two fighters resumed their match while the general Reolin Varn stood on the sidelines watching with great interest at the strange event. He... or no one really has ever seen a semblance like this. Semblances normally increase ones speed or strength or give a unique ability or something like that, but from what he sees this Rain Riedel has a combination semblance that not only increased her speed but also strength and made her look like a Faunus which was odd.

Pastel took a series of hits that knocked him around even with his aura up and decided it was time to stop playing around. He activated his semblance [Mirage].

In a instant Pastel had suddenly run in a burst of speed getting behind Rain who spun around to counter attack but as she threw one punch after another her fists passed through Pastel who stood there shrugging.

"Guh? what the hell." Rain grumbled at the strange event still surprised that her attacks didn't connect.

In that moment Rain was hit with a series of attacks from out of nowhere hitting hard and fast knocking her about the ring but seemingly only angering her. The Pastel mirage shrugged. "That all you got little girl," he said enraging Rain at this point.

If Rain had kept her cool she would have noticed that Pastels voice had come from somewhere else closer to her rather then the image of her opponent but unfortunately by this point she was quit mad and only became madder as she was struck over and over again and no matter how she attacked she could not hit her opponent.

'Ok time to finish this little match,' Pastel thought as he knew the continued use of his semblance was tiring. Pastel appeared behind Rain and tossed a rock at her only for the speedy girl to catch and crush it before charging at full speed.

'Come one come at me,' Pastel thought as the red eyed hot head charged him.

"Aaahh" Rain roared as she punched with all her strength. Pastel just stood their seemingly unworried at being hit and at the last second he brought his arms in and grabbed Rain's arm stopping her attack. Both combatants gave each other a fierce grin as they started throwing blow after blow at each other again but but like before Rain was barley phased until she overextended on one attack.

Taking the opening to end this Pastel hit Rain with another flurry of punch's and kicks while continuing to use his [Mirage] semblance to make her attack illusions of him that were just off center from his true invisible position which was also a illusion but of the back round behind him. Using his mirage illusion abilities like this was straining but doable for a short amount of time.

Pastel hit Rain with a strong right hook uppercut launching her into the air and taking the opening Pastel grabbed Rain's leg and spun her around and released throwing her out of the arena.

(heavy breath) "Huh I win." (More deep breaths).

"Augh... that hurt," The black haired girl said as she picked herself up and walked back over to her opponent fully intent to continue the match.

 **"Racorra stop!"** said Soluses voice full of authority.

The raven haired girl stopped as general Varn also ordered her to stop.

"Stop Rain. That's enough. Training is over for the day," General Varn called out as he entered the arena standing between the two squiers. Him selfe quit surprised at the young girls endurance.

"Fine..." Rain replied taking in some heavy breaths to cool off, "...good fight kid."

"Uh yeah... you too..."Pastel replied as the to squires shook hands. "Also whats with the ears and glowing?" Pastel asked voicing what all the other squiers were thinking.

"Oh that... I have no idea," Rein replied _'lying'_ as she lifted her right hand to look at the glowing markings.

They looked like the kind that second gen Zerg had when using psi-armor but a little different, and as to the wolf ears and tail... that was a good question.

"Ugh I feel... sleepy," Rain yawned weakly as the glowing stopped and her ears and tail disappeared and promptly collapsed onto the ground.

* * *

 **With Solus**

 **Hive cluster**

As Racorra's human puppet Rain collapsed from exhaustion Solus watched through the insectoid eyes of a locust atop a nearby stone wall wondering why such a mutation would occur. The glowing from the psi-armor being activated is one thing but the faunus ears and tail?.

 **"Vo,zen,"** Solus projected to the chief of his evolution masters.

Illuminated by the weakly glowing lights of the bioluminescent sacs along the evolution chambers ceiling Vo,zen weaved together the essence of a new experiment meant to integrate the self-destructing ability of Grimm into Zerg essence. Due to the nature of the essence itself this was easier said than done as over a five hundred of such attempts has failed before but from each and every failed attempt small bits of understanding were gleaned from Grimm essence. It was only a matter of time until the process was perfected and the swarm gained the ability to self destruct like Grimm. Greatly reducing any chances of the Overminds swarm stealing their essence when the two swarms finally meet.

 **"Vo,zen,"** the telepathic call sounded in the evolution masters mind.

 **"Master Solus?"** Vo,zen replied in a questioning tone not loosing focus on his work.

 **"Did you or the others evolution masters mix Human and Faunus essence into the bodies of the three brood queens human puppets?"**

After a momentary pause to think Vo,zen replied **, "Yes. Some had useful abilities. Night vision. More sensitive taste and smell among others minor advantages."** the evolution master admitted.

 **"Racorras human puppet grew Faunus ears upon activating her psi-armor,"** Solus explained.

Vo,zen stopped his work for a brief moment taking in this information before resuming.

 **"Possible mutation du to mix of variable's. Human, Faunus, Zerg essence combined with psionic energy,"** the evolution master postulated before asking **, "Any negative side effects."**

Solus thought over the theory before answering the question.

 **"Racorra seemed to be saverley drained after only a few minutes of using her psi-armor, and lost consciousness."**

 **"Hmm. Stamina of human bodies low. Suggest returning to hive cluster for improvement,"** the zerg geneticist suggested.

Solus made a mental sigh at the Geneticist's transparent attempt to have a look at the essence of the proxy bodies the three brood queens were using.

 **"Perhaps some time later."** Solus said in not so uncertain terms before changing the subject. **"How goes the integration of the Grimm essence."**

Vo,zen mad a visible shrug of his shoulders as he answered.

 **"Progress... is slow. But on going. This essence... quite unstable. Require more time to fully understand it."**

Solus was wondering if using the Grimm essence was even possible given all the time sunk into just trying to gain their only two unique abilities namely the Grimm creatures powers to sense emotions and their self destructing ability.

 **"If progress with the Grimm essence continues to yield little progress abandon it and start the Dust experiments. I'm... interested to see how our Zerg breeds adapt to the mineral."**

 **"As am I,"** Vo,zen replied.

* * *

 **Aranna capital building**

A carriage entered the open plaza ringed with white stone columns in front of the government building and pulled up allowing the passengers to exit.

"Well this is a grand palace," Duke said as he scrutinized the gaudy white building and its gold trimming.

The Xanadu government building looked somewhat similar to the DC capital building from the USA back on earth, but on a smaller scale and with two domes, one on top the main building and another atop the council meeting building in the back.

"Come let us make haste my friends. Im sure my son has the council already gathered so no reason to keep them waiting," Count Barry said as he started to climb the steps up to the building proper.

Knight Guards opened the doors for the group as they made their way into the building and from there to the council meeting chamber in back. Count Barry looked around the building as he lead the group on, quitely remembering all the years he had spent in the same structure, some days good while others filled with sad memories and others hectic with the bane of all government workers, ' _paper work'_.

With a near silent creaking sound two large gilded doors opened up to a large circular room surrounded by large windows. In the center of the room was a raised dais with five large desks and chairs each with a large back bord arranged in a half circle and in each chair was a member of the council with prince Quinn seated in the middle.

"Mister Lasten. Father. Im glad to welcome you here this day to discuss the matter of the trade deal between our nation of Xanadu and the Faunus village of Alcon. Mister Lasten you may begin by explaining exactly how opening a trade route with your village will benefit our nation and or yours for that matter."

Bran's Lasten took a few steps forward assessing the expressions of the council members before he spoke. "Men and women of the council I speak to you this day to open a dialogue between our respected people's. I believe both parties can benefit through a trade of goods now possible thanks to Mell and his air-ship. However a single ship will prove to be ill suited to a large scale transportation of the product we of Alcon village can offer."

A few meters behind the rabbit eared representative Duke rolled his eyes as he listened to the political rambling. 'Just tell them we have Dust already jeez,' Duke rattled off in his head as the waiting grated on his nerves but kept in his displeasure of politics. It wasn't that the lion Faunus was opposed to negotiating wean needed but the whole under handedness nature of politics made him distrustful of those types of people.

One of the council members spoke up. "What ' _product'_ is it that you can offer us mister Lasten," asked one of the councilmen.

"In simple terms we have access to a large deposit of raw Dust, near our village. We would only require more of the new Dust weapons to clear out the caves of Grimm to begin mining. And a fleet of airships to transport the raw Dust to your nation where it can be properly processed and sent to market across the ocean to Sanus."

The council members internally mulled over the proposal. All except Quinn who already had his whole plan well thought out.

'He he he, It should be easy to have the pawns fall where I need them,' he thought as the only women on the council spoke up.

"It's a interesting proposal mister Lasten, but as you yourself admitted the cave where the Dust vain's are located are infested by Grimm. How do you plan on clearing them so mining can begin." Mariel questioned.

Brans Lasten made a knowing nod to the question before replying. "MIss Marial," Bran's started having already been told by Count Barry the names and details of the current council members yesterday evening. "My people have had a long time to learn the habits of the Grimm that inhabit the caves. We have used the Dust from those caves for generations, but we never knew it's true value or power until the fateful meeting with mister Mell and his sister."

The council members made a slight nod acknowledging the merchant who had also been Xanadu's first contact with other people from the other continents since their ancestors first settled the Avalon continent.

Bran's continued. "Before we lacked the armaments to clear out the Grimm for good but now with the weapons and knowledge from Sanus we can make large scale mining of the Dust deposits in the caves a reality."

Putting this to mind another member of the council spoke up. "So with proper weapons you Faunus can and will clear out the mines yourselves," Brian said as he mulled over the proposal.

Nodding at this Brans got the meaning of his words. "Yes we have the manpower to do so with the proper weapons. And after we will begin sending the Dust to your kingdom to be processed and distributed."

The council members shared looks of growing interest at the proposal seeing the growing benefits to their nation.

"I think it is a great opportunity." council member Garrick said in a derisive tone. "The animals dig it up and we sell it overseas or make use of it ourselves."

"That's quite enough of that Garrick. Show our guests some respect. Sorry about him." Delano rebuked his colleague and apologized."

A little unnerved by the council man's racsim Brans shrugged it off. "That's quit all right."

At that moment Quinn struk his a gavel sending loud bangs echoing around the chamber calling all's attention to him. "Now my fellow council members we have heard the _man_ out. now it's time to decide on whether we will accept their proposal or not."

The members of the council shared looks and begun their voting.

"I say ya," said Brian.

"Ya" said Mariel

"I vote Ya" said Delano.

Garrick gave a shrug and voted. "Ya," he may not be too keen on the Faunus but he knows a good deal when he sees one.

The last to vote was prince Quinn who had all eyes on him. "I vot na," he said in a clear calm tone shocking everyone even his fellow council members.

"Can I ask way prince Quinn," Bran's asked as the other council members were practically boring holes into the prince from where they sat.

"Its simple," the prince started steepling his hands. "you Faunus will control the output of the Dust and how much of it is sent to us. I can not in goodwill accept such a lopsided deal that favors only one side over the other."

Everyone just stood still mulling over the prinches words which did ring true for the most part. Count Barry and the other members of the council were also wondering what the prince was up to. He normally didn't take much interest in the councils work besides ensuring his position. If he would do something like this it must suit his interest.

"However," The prince continued, "I would be more then willing to give this perposl my ' _full support'_ if our own nation of Xanadu had a product or resources of our own to add to the market overseas."

Faunus Representative Brans gave a cool collected sigh as he asked the question. "And what is it that you want in return for your support?," his words laced with interest as to the answer.

The prince smiled, "Well it just so happens that there is a rather mineral rich area to the north of our borders."

There was a commotion as other council members shrugged, face palmed or let out exacerbated sighs realising what the prince had in mind.

"Son don't tell me your still believe that place can be settled," Count Barry exclaimed looking his son in the eyes as the Faunus wondered what everyone was angry over.

"Pardon me count but what is this all about?" Brans asked as Lav, Duke and Tealle all shared his concern.

The count turned to the Faunus to explain. "A few years back my son sent a expedition far to the north beyond our borders to survey new lands to settle."The count then let out a sigh full of regret. "But almost half the people sent were killed by Grimm," the Count confest. "However they did find a place of great interest with a high concentration of valuable minerals, and if it were not guarded by a group of Death stalkers and other Grimm we would have turned the area into a outpost town to mine the minerals."

Bran's made a understanding nod at the explanation. "I see so the prince wants our help in clearing and defending the area so your nation can get access to the riches buried under the soil."

"T'ch. Greedy bastard," Duke mumbled.

Tealle brooded in silence and Lav just let out a sigh as the council members bored holes of discontent at the prince who just seemed unphased by the negative reactions to his proposal.

"Well mister Lasten. What is your answer," Quinn asked completely calm.

"As the representative of Alcon village,"Bran's started. "I accept the proposal. However it will take time for the rangers of our village to be properly armed with Dust weapons and prepared for such a military action."

"That is fine." prince Quinn replied with a pleased expression on his face. "I fully expect the taking of the northern lands to be a full and collaborative effort between our two people. And we also need time to arm and ready our forces. Given the time it will take Mell to travel across the ocean it should take the better part of a year to bring sufficient amounts of Dust and weapons from the Sanus continent."

With reluctance the other council members started to come around on the idea seeing as the council head and prince seemed to actually be thinking things through this time. Discussing things amongst themselves the council decided to support the venture but only if both the Xanadu knight guards and the Alcon Faunus rangers train together forming a collaboration and unified army.

 **Chapter end**


	10. Chapter 10

**[Darkness is complete]** Thank you for clarifying.

Also it sounds similar to what Karrigan did in 'Heart of the Swarm' to create Niadra weaving essence with psionic power and all. It's a good idea but... if I am to be clear Ellen can't do that... yet?! so maybe we'll see. And thanks to your suggestion I now have a great idea for a scene much later in the story so thanks. :)

Ellen's Valkyrur,s Aura is like the Aura force field that hunters and huntresses from RWBY's 'Remnant' have but she can create much...much more of it and freely control its shape and shift it between a corporeal and incorporeal phase state and fire psionic blasts with it, just to be clear.

* * *

 **[Shadowhorror]** Oh! if you mean the four maidens that received their powers from that wizard guy (cough-cough Ozpin-cough) then no sorry. I'm not interfering in that since the four maidens have already been around for thousands of years already, before the Zerg arrived on Remnant. But that may change in the future when the story reaches the beginning of the RWBY story.

Ellen will eventually go to Remnant, but not until much later. For now she's letting Solus handle things there which is why she sent him instead of going herself.

* * *

 **[Blaze1992]** Understandable about the kids. And yes I know I had Ellen go full genocide on Earth and a little on Reach but that will play into her encounter with 'Amon', And lets just say it doesn't go too well.

Yes! the Tarran technology in Starcraft will be the same when the story reaches that point.

Givin how Starcraft happens in the early 2500's AD and Halo happens in the year 2525 AD to 2552 AD. I think I'll just extend the point in time that Starcraft happens to match that of Halo, it's only a 25 to 50 year gap.

And also just to remind you this is a combo-universe of Starcraft, Halo, A little of WarHammer 40k with the Immaterium and warp beings and RWBY-verse with Valkyria chronicles and our real world Earth as the starting base. All mashed together by 'Psyon' who is a 'being' of the Fractal-verse which is way...way...way beyond a normal multiverse even compared to all the comics bull-shit of Marvel and DC or any other for that matter. And Psyon will play into the story in the final stages when Ellen meets him.

Also I still haven't settled on a name for the ultimate enemy warp god yet?. If you have some ideas, throw a PM my way so as to keep it between us, I don't want spoilers for the others reading my story after all. I am always open to suggestions and input.

To be clear the big bad Warp god is 'not' the God Emperor of mankind from WarHammer 40k if you still think that. But is what 'I' think a warp god would be if it was created from the emotion of 'Pride'. (I-E, based on Bhunivelze from FF-13, 3). Google it, look at him and tell me he isn't what a warp god based on Pride would look like. But the way my warp god OC was created is similar to Slaanesh just not Murder *ucked into existence more like Smug *ucked into being, just no sex.

* * *

 **[Chapter 10]**

 **[First blood]**

 **Planet** Remnant

 **Continent** Avalon

 **Nation** Xanadu

 **City** Aranna

 **Fortress** Rasenden

It was a normal morning of training as a arrow sailed through the air for 200 feet hitting a target dead center.

Storm smiled at her growing skill at her chosen weapon as did General Varn who watched from the battlements as the squiers trained. The old war dog as he often did, grinned at the growing skill of his trainees over the past three months. A satisfied feeling washing over him which only a teacher could experience as he sees his students learn, grow and become stronger.

General Varn then turned his head to the otherside of the courtyard to see the rest of the squiers continuing their drills in hand to hand and melee battle with swords and spares. Their steel tips and silvery blades clashing as the squiers blocked parried and attacked each other in mock training battles.

Thanks to the tough training style all of the squiers had awoken their auras and some developed their semblances.

Narrowing his eyes he focused on the three Reidel sisters who had surprised him and everyone else with their... odd semblance, semblance singular because all three of them had the same semblance which was very odd and unheard of, but what made it all the more strange was that whenever they used their semblance they grow Faunus like ears and tails along with those glowing lines that flow across their bodies. The scholars who are experts in the matters of auras and semblances (After they had a look at the girls and saw a display of their powers) say the glowing lines reflects the statues of a body reinforcing aura that unlike the normal aura does not protect the body from attacks but reinforces it increasing the ability to withstand all types of damage to a degree that is equal to, or perhaps stronger then a normal aura shield which covers the body.

Unfortunately these powers also drain significant amounts of stamina just to maintain. It's the equivalent of a normal knight guard using both their aura and semblance at the sametime on full power all the time. Which greatly limits the use of such a power at least that was until the three girls got a better grip on the control of their own powers, which over the course of the past few months they were able to do greatly reducing the strain on their own bodies..

General Varn continued to observe the squier's train a knight guard approached from behind.

"Sir," the knight guard said as he stopped beside the general and saluted.

"Yes?" Varn asked without turning.

"We've gotten word from our forces in the south eastern province that a large group of Grimm has attacked the main village in that area and they have requested reinforcement's."

The general considered the information as he rubbed his chin. "Why haven't the local garrison handled it?"

"The report says that they are doing the best they can but a sickness has hit the town and the fort rendering half the knight guards there bedridden."

"Tch. Damn government penny pinchers, they must have cut costs on the forts sanitation system. Bet a pipe burst underground and let bacteria into the garrison's water supply," the general stated with much disdain in his voice.

"Are we going to deploy reinforcements sir?" the soldier asked.

The fortress of Rasenden was one of the largest military forts in Xanadu but was by no means the only one, if he so wished general Varn could have sent a number of troops from another fort or fortress to handle the situation but as he thought he grinned as he glanced over at the squiers.

A few minutes later all twenty three squiers and a hundred knight guards were assembled in the courtyard. All one hundred and twenty three of them standing at perfect attention waiting for their orders. The full fledged knight guards were all like statues as they waited, but the squiers on the other hand were a little antsy seeing as they had been gathered for some reason but for what? they would just haft to wait to find out.

Pastel and others glanced over at the General as he and one of his officers walked out of the fortresses main building stopping on a raised platform in front of the gathered men and women that seemed made for speeches.

"Now i'm sure you all have questions regarding why I have had all of you gather here."The general started, pausing a bit. "We have gotten a report that stated a fort in the south eastern province is in need of reinforcements. Half their troops have been stricken with sickness while a group of Grimm have been attacking the village. It's my intention to lead all of you to render aid to the village our fellow people and knight guardsmen."

The squiers all had different opinions on the matter, some were afraid they had only started training a few months ago and were of the personal opinion that they were not ready to face Grimm while the more understanding ones like Pastel understood that the squier's would in all likelihood just be observing for the most part while the real knight guards did all the fighting... but you never know.

"Now I want all of you to load up on supplies. Extra pairs of clothes. Food. Some medical supplies and your weapons from the armory. We leave in one hour. Dismissed."

The gathered knight guards and squiers all relaxed as they dispersed to their rooms.

 **Squiers quarters**

The squiers quarters placed at the far end of the main buildings second floor consisted of eight rooms along a single hallway each with two bunk beds and a closet and a window overlooking the stables so on occasion the smell of horse waffed in through any open window. Luckley it wasn't that bad and often the squiers only stayed in their rooms to sleep what with the hard training they went through. For the past few months they have trained all day everyday and took a bath followed by collapsing in their beds and sleeping all night long and then waking in the morning to repeat the process.

But now they all were getting ready to leave the fortress for the first time since they had arrived (Well that wasn't completely true there was those times they marched through and around the city but those times don't count) and on a mission to face off real Grimm which some people were more enthusiastic about then others.

 **Theson siblings room**

"You got to be kidding me" Nick grumbled as he stuffed his backpack with a few spare clothes, a compass along with a knife and a few wrapped up pieces of salted and smoked meat.

"I think i'ts a good opportunity to show the general what we can do," Storm stated a bit too cheery as she filled her own backpack.

"Oh right," Nick started. "like we can fight Grimm... real Grimm after only just what a few months of training. Granted it's been a hell of hard training, [sigh] but still it normally takes at least a year for a normal knight guard to be fully trained."

Pastel already having finished filling his backpack sat on his bed trying to be the older brother he is tried to ease his brothers nerves. "Nick it's very unlikely that the general will have us fight against Grimm. It's more likely we'll just watch as the fully fledged knight guards do all the fighting."

Nick glared at his big brother a moment like he had just crawled out from under a rock before returning to his backpack. "Uh [shrug] Pastel have you been going through the same training as the rest of us or do you not understand what a grade A sadist the general is. He'll totally have us fight Grimm, [shaking head] granted maybe not alone but we'll fight along with the normal knight guards at least."

Pastel shrugged and admitted that was a very real possibility.

 **Reidel siblings room**

The brood queens in human form had quickly got their supplies in order and loaded up everything they would need. But the matter of their mission was still on Numia's mind. She was oddly concerned for the human squiers. Thinking about the possibility of them being harmed or killed greatly disturbed her, which was a significant change since the war on earth long ago where she saw the humans as weak, and the the weak died so they need not suffer or so that the strong can survive. Living alongside the humans as one of them seeing from their eyes and feeling with their flesh seems to be changing her and her sisters. Empress Ellen once said that there are more than one way to evolve, The Zerg way which is only of the body and essence and the second way which is of the mind and heart. Weather the changes in the brood queens is for the better and a evolution or a weakness has yet to be seen.

After packing up the three of them all left their room and made their way to the kitchen where they collected some food from the fortress kitchen for the long journey. The caravan wagons will carry most of the food, water and other supplies but General Varn had drilled it into them that each soldier should be ready, prepared and responsible for their own supplies.

After a hour had passed all one hundred knight guards and twenty three squiers stood at attention once again in the courtyard each with a fully loaded leather backpack laying at their feet. Alongside them were ten transport wagons each loaded with supplies.

From his office on the seventh floor of the fortresses main building General Varn looked down at the soldiers under his command, pride filling his heart from the fighting force he had trained and the new recruits he hoped would prove themselves in the coming ordel.

"I hope you know what your doing Old man," Lieutenant Vash Alders called out from behind him.

General Varn turned around to see his second in command enter the room.

"Oh I do." general Varn replied.

"Do you?" the lieutenant questioned, "It's only been two months since they began training, and yes all of them have unlocked their auras but most are still getting the handle of their semblances."

The general grunted in agreement. "Your right of course, but its not like i'm bringing them to fight, their just coming along for the ride and for some hands on training and if they should take out some Grimm along the way it's all the better."

The lieutenant shrugged remembering his own harsh training back in the day but was brought out of it when another person entered the room.

"You called for me general ?" Captain Titus asked saluting as he stood in the doorway.

"Ah yes come in." the general replied guestering for the captain to come closer.

"If I may ask general why is there a small army gathered outside," the captain asked as he stopped beside the lieutenant.

"Ah that." the general started in response."Im going on a little expedition to the southeast province to deal with a Grimm infestation there."

The captain hummed to himself muling over the situation. "I see. And I see that the gathered forces you have outside have the new squiers with them," the captain said raising a eyebrow at the general.

"Yes I do. it will be good for the squiers to get some field experience," the general replied with a straight face.

Titus grunted and shook his head, "Iron wipe Varn strikes again I see," the captain stated using the generals nickname given to him by some of his past trainees.

The general only smiled. "Now getting serious Titus I would like to tell you why I had called you here."The captain was listening. "I'm putting you in charge of Ransenden, I want you to protect the capital city until my return.

The captain was taken aback by the request. "Uh general i'm only a captain I can't-" general Varn held up a hand to stop the captain.

"I know that old friend but your the only one I really trust to get the job done. At least until I return. And if you do good i'll put in a request to the council for you to-be promoted to general. If you'll take it that is?"

Captain Titus looked at his old friend and shrugged. "Why not. I've been meaning to retire in a few years now anyway and having the pay grade of a general would help with my retirement funds."

"You may even be able to buy a villa," lieutenant Alders added they all shared a laugh.

* * *

 **Five hours later**

 **Sixty eight miles outside Aranna**

After leaving the capital general Varn and his army of both veteran knight guards and squiers made their way eastward passing many farms, a town and a few villas but after a while of traveling they started exiting the capitals area and started moving through the open land of grassy fields, clear water streams and large patch's of forests that makeup most of Xanadu,s land.

As the military caravan proceeded towards the south east province they moved along a stone caped road way one of many crisscrossing the nation. It cut between a flat open field to the right and a tree-less high hill to the left. The horse drawn wagons were in staggered formation moving between groups of knight guards marching along as they proceed to their destination.

"Aaah my legs feel like there gonna fall off," Nick grumbled as he and the rest of the squiers shuffled along in the waning sunlight.

"Don't you ever stop complaining," Rain stated a few meters behind, catching the boy in yet another of his whining moments which had been a normal thing from the boy all through their training.

"I will once there,s nothing to complain about!" Nick shot back.

"Enough! yelling could draw Grimm,"Pastel shouted back.

The caravan continued along it's way despite the banter between the squiers and as if on cue a rumble came from above. A few people took notice and looked up the hill.

"Boarbatusks!" someone yelled at the top of their lungs calling everyone's attention to the four Grimm beasts rolling down the hill at breakneck speed heading straight at the caravan like living boulders of flesh and white razor sharp tusks.

"Phalanx up!" one of the higher raked knight guards called out.

Understanding the order from years of experience dozens of the soldiers quickly formed ranks along the hill raising both their auras and shields at a ever so slanted angle and just in time. With a resounding impact the Boarbatusks hit the angled shield wall launching themselves up and over the caravan landing in the field on the other side of the road.

Ten knight guards ran out to meet the stunned Grimm while the squiers were all still shaken up by the ambush. "You squiers stay back. We'll handle the Grimm," one soldier stated.

"Yeah watch and learn from the pro's kids," another said firmly to the squiers as the Boarbatusks stood back up shaking off their dizziness and snorting in annoyance at the humans.

Back at the phalanx shield wall the shaken knight guards stood back up from deflecting the Boarbatusks only to spot more Grimm racing at them from atop the hill.

"More Grimm coming down the hill! twenty Beowolfs." he warned.

"Ha! great. Guess they weren't kidding when they said the Grimm were moving around in groups. Ok everyone lets kill us some Grimm," a knight guard said as he joined his fellow soldiers in battle.

The squiers could only watch as the ensuing battle unfolded. The Grimm Boarbatusk,s jumped landing in a spin dash and rolling for the caravan to end what they had started. The knight guards charged at first looking like they were just going to get bowled over by the Grimm bowling balls of death when at the last second one of the knight guards used his Dust enhanced ice sword and froze all four of the Boarbatusks, partly encasing them in ice blocks mid roll. The spear wilders attacked spearing the Boarbatusk,s in their sides and their unarmored bellys.

The grimm squealed in pain and started flexing their bodies braking free of the ice with broken or bent spears sticking out of their sides and bloody bellys. Without hesitation the other swordsmen jumped on the stunned Grimm slashing and piercing them in the vulnerable openings between their pale white armor-plates.

With a final scream the last Boarbatusk died only to be replaced by the Beowolfs now clashing against the phalanx shield wall. Dozens of spears thrusting and prodded at the Grimm from between the shields as they slash at the metal and leather shield wall cutting claw marks into each shield. One Beowolf snapped at a spear catching it in its jaws and braking it. The Beowolf then jumped up and landed on the mans shield knocking him down and slashed at the two soldiers to its sides knocking them back and braking the phalanx formation long enough for a few of the other Grimm to get past them to where the greatest fear they sense is coming from as the knight guards reformed their lines covering the short lived opening.

The knight guards on the shield wall cursed hoping the squier's can handle the Beowolfs.

As the Grimm came at them the squiers all panicked drawing their weapons in hast, fear and panic which only drew the beasts of Grimm to them all the more as the first Beowolf charged at them it's fanged mouth salavatring at the chance to dip its claws and fangs into human flesh.

"Ahh. stay back," one squier named Jeff shouted fearfully as he tried spearing the beast but in his panic and inexperience missed his mark, the spears blade only glancing off the Grimms shoulder cutting it but doing little damage other than to anger the beast. For a moment the Beowolf wrenched at the minor injury before focusing on the little fool who dare strike it.

 _"Grrrrha"_ The Beowolf snarled as it batted the spear away knocking it out of the humans shaking hands and lifted its claws again to behead the human who in his fear fell backward on his ass.

[Clank]

"Rrrrah?" the Beowolf look surprised as its attack was blocked by another of the little humans but there was no fear in this one.

"Oh no you don't you ugly monster," Pastel stated with all seriousness as he slashed downward, his straight sword cutting a gash in the Grimms clawed hand. Twisting his blade on the downswing and shifting his stance forward a little Pastel swung his sword upwards again with all his might cutting a gash in the Beowolfs chest making it stumble back in pain as Nick and Storm joined in the fight.

Storm released a arrow sending it sailing into the Grimms left inner thigh and fired a bolt of lightning stunning that seemed to aim for the metal arrow.

 _"Grrrrahh"_ the beast yelled in pain from the lightning bolt as Nick ran up to finish it off. He jumped and with a deft downward swing planted his mace right onto the Beowolfs head cracking its skulls white armor and dropping the beast to the ground blood leaking out from its broken head.

"Ha ha take that." Nick quipped feeling victories,"Well that was easy, I expected more then that." as soon as he said that one of the other Beowolfs lunged at him only to be intercepted by someone else who shoulder bashed the beast and followed it up with a roundhouse kick and ended it with a Draw slash of her Katana. The flurry of blows sent the Beowolf reeling back as its head fell from it shoulders.

Looking to his saviour Nick saw Yuna standing there with her Katana. "Huh? uh thanks," he said still a little bit surprised.

"Your welcome," she calmly replied as the last Beowolf to breach the knight guards phalanx snarled at her baring its fangs.

"I got this one," Rain said calmly as she walking past her sister, her heavy black armored and red lined gauntlets and Greaves glishining in the light on her forarm's and lower legs.

The Beowolf hesitated surprised its prey would come to it.

"Well..." Rain asked the beast as she casually walked closer to it.

Shacking off its hesitation the Beowolf jumped at her as to rip out her throat. The other squier's flinching for fear that she would be torn limb from limb but 'that' never came to be as the attacks of the Grimm beast never hit their marks. With almost inhuman skill, grace and agility Rain dodged every attack giving a few love taps to the Beowolf with her metal hands and feet making it think twice before making its next move but the beast seemed to not get the hint that doing the same thing isn't going to work as it just lunged at her over and over again and it ended the same way every time with Rain evading every attempt on her life.

'How disappointing even a Zergling would have learned a new attack pattern by now,' Rain thought as she spun out of another attack and jumped back a bit and then jumped up flipping into the air and as the beast looked at up at her she brought her armored foot down on the Beowolfs head and with a wet crunch of shattering bone smashed the Beowolfs skull into the ground splattering its brain goo all over.

Rain stood back up and glanced back to Pastel, Storm, Nick and the rest of the squiers who all looked like they had seen a cat play with its prey. "What?"

 **"Rain don't over do it. We're supposed to be inexperienced recruits,"** Numia projected to her sister standing among the other squiers who all had gaping mouths at the scene that played out before them.

[Sigh] **"Ok,"** Rain replied as the knight guards in the phalanx line finished off the last of the Beowolf's cutting them down with only a few minor injuries and low auras.

Off at the head of the caravan two men on horseback watched the battle as it had ensued. General Varn wondered when the Gimm would attack as its a given when traversing the long roadways that criss crossed Xanadu but for the Grimm to attacked in large groups like this one was odd to say the least.

"It look like tha Grimm have been dealt with. Think any of the squiers are hurt?" stated Lieutenant Alders.

The general gave a grin as he watched his men recovered from the attack, along with the younger squiers who he hoped had learned a valuable lesson from their first encounter with Grimm.

"No their all right. We'll continue on our way in a few minutes."

The knight guard caravan continued along its way after any wounded were cared for and everyone had some rest time but they were still far from their destination.

Two whole days of marching and fending off three more Grimm ambushes later they reached the Arnsol river and followed it down to the southern shore meeting the ocean. Another ten hours of marching later and they finally reached the town of Verenos, the southeastern most settlement in Xanadu.

As the caravan marched up to the gates of the town the guards on the walls called them to halt. The guards on the wall looked the caravan over and then turned their attention back to the two men on horseback in front.

"Halt identify yourselves?" one guard asked as two men on horseback approached one a middle aged man and the other looking in his thirties.

"Im lieutenant Alders and this is general Varn. Were here to reinforce the garrison that has taken i'll," Vash Alders replied.

"Oh! general we'll get the gates for you quickly," the man stated as he and his partner scrambled to open the gate.

A few moments later there was a metallic clank as the gates started to raise up opening the way. The knight guard caravan marched inside the walled town their mere presence improving the peoples morale which had been at a all time low after the recent weeks events. Some of the people throwing shouts of thanks and glee at the arrival of more knight guards to aid and protect them.

One of the guards from the wall ran up to the general and lieutenant.

"Sir's if you follow me i'll lead you to the towns fort."

"Thank you soldier lead on," general Varn replied as he and his caravan followed the man.

As they made their way through town many people gave thanks to the knight guards for their arrival. Numia also observed some of the people were Faunus but only a small minority.

The caravan and all its members settled down at the local fort consisting of a main tower and connecting buildings each as big as a four to eight story building and a courtyard like the one back at Rasenden but half the size. It was barely enough room for all the troops and supply wagons to fit.

"Soldier wheres your commanding officer?" lieutenant Alders asked the man.

"Oh uh the captain... he was also taken with fever and has been bedridden for days now," the man replied with trepidation visible in his voice.

"Take me to him," the general stated as if a command before turning to his second. "Lieutenant Alders your in charge of our unpacking, I want everything unloaded." The general ordered as he followed the soldier into the fort.

Lieutenant Alders turned around and yelled orders at the resting troops. "All right all of you unpack the supplies double time," he ordered in a steirn voice.

 **Officers quarters fort Dasin**

General Varn entered the personnel quarters of the captain of the fort seeing the man laying in his bed with a leather ice bag on his forehead.

"Cough-cough...cough. Oh hello general... Varn... forgive me for not standing but as you can see i'm not feeling up to it at the moment," captain Sarson greeted with a bit of humor in his gravaled voice.

"That's quite alright captain Sarson. Now tell me whats been going on around here," the general asked needing to be briefed on what had happened here.

"Ah where to begin..." the man looked up to the ceiling in thought before returning his gaze to the general. "The first bit of trouble occurred about over a week ago when we were hit by that damn sickness 'cough' ahh... and then people started dying and sensing the sorrow of the families in their loss the Grimm came... attracted by the peoples negative emotions."

The general grunted remembering the repetition of such events in the past. ,Sigh, "It sounds a lot like the repeating of past events. Lots of people get down hearted and Grimm come running like moths to a flame."

"cough-cough. Yeah except this time my soldiers were hit by the sickness as well. Half bedridden. cough. We still had enough man power to hold off the Grimm... just barley, but we lost ten knights in the fighting and two family's in the seventh attack last night when some damn Beowolfs got over the wall in a unguarded part of the wall."

"Seventh?! how many times have the Grimm attacked you" Varn asked curries at the unusually frequent attacks.

"Oh everyday. cough-cough. Ahh sometimes in the morning other times after dark. Different times like they were... testing our defenses,"

"Its not normal for Grimm to behave like this and attack continually day after day," the general stated worried at the ramifications of this.

"Heh yeah it sure is strange. If we were hit by anymore Grimm then what we had been we wouldn't have had the forces to hold them off. cough. Thank the gods we weren't hit by any damn Nevermores."

"Captain do you know where the Grimm are staging their attacks from."

"No. Thought about sending out some scouts but decided against it since we can't spare anyone else and we already called for reinforcements."

"It was the best call to hold up and not waste your forces out their," the general reasuared the captain he had made the right call.

[Cough]"Thanks. So what now?"

"Now you get more rest along with your men while I fix this mess."

Captain Sarson laughed a little. "Ha ha ha. Your welcome to it general."

 **Fort Dasin armory**

While the general and the forts captain talked Lieutenant Alders organized his knight guards and the squiers to unpack the supplies from the wagons in the courtyard and move them to the fort's supply house and armory one barrel and crate at a time. Even with over a hundred troops working to gather it still took a good ten minutes to off load all the cargo which included some Dust weapons and ammo.

"What the hell is this thing," a fort Dasin knight guard asked as one of the creates was cracked open revealing a long barreled rifle with a bayonet placed in a slot next to it along with twenty ten shot stripper clips of what looked like 7.62 rounds.

"Oh that,"Lieutenant Alders said walking over to the man and the open create," Thats a long rifle from across the ocean," Alders explained as he picked up the rifle and loaded it with a single strip of ammo and then walked outside to the shooting range followed by the two men and showed them how to load and fire it.

The lieutenant aimed and fired.

[Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang] The load repore of the rifle echoed through the fort and reached into the town a little making some people turn their heads wondering what the loud noise was all about.

The lieutenant shot off the full ten shot stripper clip as the knight guards covered their ears from the loud boom and bangs of the rifle as they watched the demonstration continue while the Theson siblings and the other squiers finished loading the last of the cargo into the forts underground food storage room.

[Bang] [Bang] [Bang] [Bang] [Bang]

"Ow... that's lowed damn't," Nick grumbled carrying a cargo box, his ears ringing from the gun fire wishing he could use both his hands to cover his ears.

"Bear with it Nick," Pastel replied as he and Nick brought the last of the creates inside.

Four hours later it was night fall and everyone had their own bath. The water was heated with fire Dust that was in the supplies replacing the normal wood. The general had ordered his men to prepare baths to clean up. The men were all grateful as they could at last clean off all the dirt and grime that built up over the long trip. It also allowed the squiers some rest from the long marching but it was also to allow them time to rest.

"Aaaah that feels great," Nick said as he dipped into the steaming hot bath along with his fellow male squiers.

The fort had a massive bathhouse that was big enough to hold at least twenty five people at a time. It was supposedly built by a noble who moved to the costal town some decades ago whose son was in the knight guards.

"Yeah it sure feels great." another squier replied in agreement. "At least we finally have sometime to actually relax after days of marching."

"Hell yeah."Nick agreed." That damn slave driver of a general runs us ragged all day to the point we just collapse from exhaustion after every day of training and does it again every day for months. Ah, I don't think i've felt this good for quite a while," Nick exclaimed as he sunk deeper into the steaming water.

Another of the boys agreed in the distance while Jeff looked over to Pastel and Nick.

"Hey Pastel... thanks for saving me back when that Beowolf was about to get me," the boy thanked.

Pastel firmly enjoying the bath glanced over to the dark skinned boy. "Your welcome Jeff. You had good form but panicked at the last moment and missed. Just keep your cool and you'll be fine next time."

"Uh really. I thought I sucked," the boy replied kicking him selfe down.

"Hey hey Jeff," Nick yelled to the depressed boy. "If my brother thinks your ok your ok. You just need more confidence in your self man."

"Uh you think?," the boy replied clearly not having any confidence in him selfe.

"Yeah aren't I right Bro."

"Nicks right Jeff your just lack confidence in four self," the oldest Theson child replied.

"Um the general told me the same thing one time, I guess it's true if your telling me the same thing," Jeff said mostly to himself.

"Hey if you want we can give you some special training tomorrow if you want."

"Really, how?,"

Nick suddenly got a sly look in his eye. "Oh I got a few ideas."

Pastel glanced over to his brother wondering if he should be worried or not.

After all the boys and men took their baths the water was drained and replaced and reheated for the girls who although fewer in number then the boys still deserved a decent bath.

All the female squiers which numbered only seven out of the twenty three took their time in the bath house of the fort along with some of the other female knight guards at the fort.

The girls let out Various moan's of enjoyment as they much enjoyed the experience after the long journey. Even the Reidel girls enjoyed the steaming water that was their first such experience. They had taken bathes before in Ransenden after every day of training but never in hot water or in a group. The atmosphere of the room was different then they could have expected.

"Mmmm."

"Aaah."

"Mm... ah."

Storm giggled at the relaxing sounds the three riedel sister made as they soaked in the water. "You three sound like you never had a warm bath before he he."

"We have... ah but it always feels great to relax after a hard day," Numia replied happily enjoying the soak.

Yuna and Rain made agreeing mones as they just let the past few days of marching and fighting Grimm off, melt away by the steaming water. They also wondered if they could feel like this with their normal Zerg bodies in such a bath. Just something to try out one day.

"Hay why don't we all go shopping tomorrow. I saw some candy shops in town when we were passing through," Storm asked.

Yuna sighed "Ah... If I know general Varn he'll have someone out scouting for that Grimm nest after morning."

"Yeah he will no doubt" Storm replied with a sigh as she turned around crossing her arms on the stone edge of the bath looking out the window to the town lights beyond," But if he doesn't send any of **us** out he'll more then likely have us patrol the town. So lets go when our shift is done."

Rain turned to Storm. "Maybe if we get the chance i'd like to fine a candy shop."

"Oh is my sister of mine feeling like she wants some more sweets to eat," Yuna chimed in fondly remembering the first time Rain bit into some chocolate cake and just about scarfed the rest down herself. Ever since then the raven haired, red eyed squier has had a sweet spot for candies of all kinds and on any of the rare days general Varn let the squiers off without running them ragged with his training the three sisters would go out into town for some sweets and fine food sometimes bringing leftovers back to the rest of the squiers which quickly got the three girls on the good sides of most of their fellow trainees.

Rain started getting redder embarrassed from her little addiction to human sweets. "Uh well I wouldn't mind if we... [bubbling water noises as Rain sinks her lower head under the water]."

Yuna grinned and teased her sister more.

"You can't get enough of candy can you Rain. I have to admit myself it is a little addicting those little treats. The pecan pies, Chocolate bars, fudge bars, Caramels, and lets not forget ice-cream."

"Im in," Malinda said.

"Me to," Reese added.

"I could go for some ice cream," Misa stated.

The other squier girls chimed in.

"Ok its settled then," Storm said standing up, the water covering her waist down and the steam covering her upper body for the most part. "Tomorrow let's all go out and get some sweets after work, courtesy of the money bags over here," Storm said gesturing to Yuna, Rain, Numia.

"Hay were not your personal banks you know," Yuna protested. Sure they had money but it wasn't all ment for buying junk food.

"Ok," Numia said flatly.

"What?" Yuna and Rain said together as they turned to their sister.

"Oh goody thanks for-" Storm started but was interrupted by Numia.

"On the condition that I get a sparring match with you Storm."

Storm tilted her head in thought as she lowered herself back into the water. "Ok I get it, so if I win you have to buy all of us lots of tasty sweets."

"And if I win you teach me all you know about Auras and semblances," Numia stated confusing the other girls in the bath considering they had already learned so much over the past few months.

"Huh?" Storm seemed surprised. "Don't you already know alot about that stuff. I mean from what I hear you talked with those experts who know practically all there is to know about the subject of Auras and semblances."

"True," Numia replied. "but there are some things they didn't tell me and I would like to hear about how you and your brothers awoke your aura's. I heard you were out on the streets for a while before joining the knight guards and you three had already unlocked your auras so... how did you unlock them?."

Storms demeanor changed becoming defensive. "What why, it's not like I or my brothers know alot about the subject. Just about how to awaken your aura and semblance."

One of the other girls Reese who had not heard any of this looked back and forth between Numia and Storm. "Hay Storm whats she saying?"

Storm looked to Alice and then down to the water,"Oh uh... well..."

"Their orphans," Numia blurted out.

"Huh is that true," Malinda asked in a worried tone turning to Storm who looked shrunken from being reminded of that fact.

"Yeah its true. But how did you find out?"

Numia finished washing herself off and stood up getting out of the bath. "I'll tell you... if you bet be tomorrow."

The squiers all finished up their baths and went to bed for the night recovering their energy for the coming day.

Laying in her bed in the squiers quarters Storm thought on Numias words and became resolved to keep her and her brothers secrete, if it ever got out that they had their auras unlocked by their father before he was killed instead of them doing it by themselves the three Theson siblings may even be kicked out of the knight guards, and that cannot happen.

The next morning everyone woke up and ate their breakfast in the forts kitchen before gathering in the courtyard as general Varn walked to the raised balcony overlooking the courtyard.

He gave his orders for most of the knight guards and the squiers he brought to remain in the town patrolling for Grimm with the local garrison of troops while Lieutenant Alders takes twenty men out and searches for the Grimms lair. Givin the numbers of Grimm that had attacked the town before, they must have a place somewhere nearby. This of course ment the squiers all had time to do their thing after being relieved of their patrol duty by the next shift of troops.

The girls then sneaked off and met up at a abandoned building on the edge of town which had been empty of people since being burned down in one of the Grimm attacks. All of the female squiers stood around a makeshift arena in the middle of the room as Numia and Storm glared at each other.

"Ok, [shrug] "how do you want to do this?" Storm asked.

Numia stretched a little before answering. "First to be knocked out of the ring looses."

"Ok. But we can still use our semblance's right." Storm asked.

"Yes."

Storm gave a grin as she and Numia set the conditions of their little sparring match.

"You two sure you still want to do this?" Misa asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah we're sure. Besides the boys can't be the ones to always act all rough and tumble. Us girls should be able to do anything they can."

"Agreed," Numia added.

In the next few moments the two girls shared looks of determination. Nether one backing down from their agreements.

Rain stood by the ring as referee holding up her hand, "Ok... start."

The moment Rain dropped her hand Storm and Numia attacked their fists flying and legs kicking, their bodies twisting and ducking as they each tried to hit their opponents weak points. They weaved around each other and used their hand to hand training to its fullest as they fought.

On the sidelines the other girls watched as the match continued with both Numia and Storm being evenly matched but neither had used their semblance yet.

"Come on that the," [Storm dodged a right straight] "best you got."

"You really," [Numia blocked a left swiping kick] "want to go all out huh."

"I just want those candies" [Storm ducked and weved evading three successive punches] "And to see who is the strongest between us."

"Is that" [Numia dodge rolled around to the side and jumped kicking in the air] "so."

[Recovering from the midair kick Storm became more fierce in her attacks] "Yeah."

Blocking a hail of punches and kicks Numia was forced into a corner resorting to her semblance her body glowing with energy and her redish orange and white tipped fox ears and tail sprouted as she caught Storms fists in her hands "Then why do you seem so scared of something," Numia asked looking Storm in the eyes.

[Storm lowered her head both of her fists still caught in Numia's iron grasp] "Tch. Thats none of your business."

Sensing danger Numia kicked Storm away just before she activated her semblance and sparks of lightning started arching over her body and her silvery aura becoming nearly visible.

[Storm looked up to Numia and smiled] "But I do want those sweet candies you promised me," Storm said flatly as she flexed her fingers and reformed her fist's as the lightning continued to arch along her body.

Numia knew that if she was hit by that lightning she would be hit by an unknown amount of volts but it couldn't be helped if she wanted to win. Numia quickly formed a plan but given her lack of space she would have to take a few hits to win.

Storm walked forwards fists ready as the energy arched over her body. Numia stood there until the last moment and just as Storm swung her opening attack she ducked and lunged wrapped her arms around Storms waist and lifted her up.

"Bad choice," Storm yelled as her lightning energy started surging into Numias body causing her hair and the fur of her Faunus ears and tail to to stand on end from the surge of electricity as the other girls watching gasp in shock and concern.

"Gah! ahh is ... that... all... you got," Numia said her psi-armor reinforcing barely reduced the damage caused to her.

It would seem that psi-armor has some weaknesses after all as it doesn't stop electricity from surging through the body but it was reducing the damage and still allowed Numia to control her body as such energy coursing through the body normally would cause it to convulse uncontrollably like a human getting hit by a taser, but the psi-armor thankfully prevented this and still allowed Numia control of her body.

With a cry of pain and determination Numia jumped lifting herself and Storm up into the air and slammed both of them into the floor and surprisingly through it both falling into the basement, kicking up a dust cloud from the broken wood that must have been weakened in the fire.

"Ah... that was... crazy you know that," Storm groaned from the rough landing both her and Numia laying beside each other on the dirt floor with broken 2x4s laying around them. If it wasn't for ones aura and the others psi-armor they both would have a lot of broken bones from the twelve foot fall.

"Well... nothing ventured... ah nothing gained, ha ha ha... ah," Numia replied laughing which Storm joined along with as the other girls looked down at them from the hole in the floor or ceiling depending on how you look at it.

"You two ok," Reese called down to them.

"Yeah were good." Storm replied.

After the fight all seven girls went out for ice-cream with Numia paying the bill which was odd to Storm because the deal was for Storm to tell her what she knows on auras and semblances. But when asked Numia simple said she changed her mind and decided to do both since the fight was enjoyably and technically a draw.

Storm simply shrugged and accepted it and afterword all the girls were gathered along the southern end of the towns wall next to the sea port which had a killer view of the ocean. It was a shame that the beach was infested with giant crab Grimm that would pop out of the sand if anyone got close.

"Thanks for the fight" Numia said out of the blue as she licked her ice-cream.

"For what?" Storm asked cocking her head.

"I'm learning more about auras and semblances little by little hoping one day me and my sisters will unlock ours," she said bluntly.

Storm looked shocked at this revelation and suddenly had a lot of questions but one shot to the front of her mind, "What?. I... I thought you and your sisters already had your auras unlocked what with that weird-."

"Yeah." Numia cut her off. "that's not a aura or a sembalence," Numia admitted quietly and turned to Storm and put her index finger to her mouth. "but something else."

Storm looked dumb-founded for a moment before recovered as Numia continued.

"However I would like to know how you and your brothers awoken your auras."

Storm went from dumbfounded to defensive and cautious. "What why do you want to know?"

"Research," Numia said flatly. "A lot of the books in the Rasenden fortress archives sounded like they were alluding to some... other way to awaken ones aura but they and those old fossils who appraised me and my sisters powers didn't answer my questions over the matter."

Storm thought a moment wondering just who Numia and her sisters were. But the more she tried to find a reason to dislike or distrust them she only found herself thinking that their not enemies especially after Yuna saved her brother Nick that one time.

Sighing Storm decided it couldn't hurt to tell her. "Well it's not something the knight guards advertise or let slip because of the whole you have to earn your aura through hard work and discipline thing... but people can have their auras awakened if someone who already has theirs uses it on them."

Numia hummed in thought as she had suspected something like this but didn't have the details. It was fascinating to think it was something so simple yet elusive. It was probably kept quiet because if everyone knew that they could awaken their aura this way then the number of crimes related to someone using their semblance could rise and undermine the power and authority of the knight guards or maybe even the government. The number of people with auras outside the knight guards was few to none but that guy that attacked Numia before in the ally-way in Aranna had his aura and semblance so some people out of the knight guards do exist or maybe he was a former knight guard or something. "I see now. You got your aura unlocked by someone else."

"Uh yeah. And could you not say anything to... anyone please it will just cause trouble for me and my brothers." Now that Storm thought about it maybe that captain Titus was protecting them in a strange way by having them join the knight guards. Storm has heard that people who use their auras and semblances outside the military... illegally disappear. It was probably a small miracle that someone else didn't capture Strom and her brothers before.

Numia gestured yes and replied. "Your secrets safe, I'm only interested in learning more about auras and semblances."

Internally Storm felt relieved. "Thanks I-"

[Bang bang, boom bang]

The crack of gunfire followed by a alert siren sounding caught the off duty girls by surprise but they quickly surmised that the Grimm were attacking. All of the girls with great regret and a new found hatred of Grimm begrudgingly dropped their ice-creams and ran to the ramps that connect up to the wall which was a faster way of moving to their destination.

Hundreds of the townsfolk were running through town in differing states of panic for the shelters or their homes, in case any of the Grimm get in like last time.

However the Grimm were doing things a little differently this time.

Running along the battlements of the town the seven female squiers reached the side of town the battle was being fought on and the sight before them was one of true war as over a hundred knight guards battled in a fierce melee against hundreds of Grimm outside the towns front gates while dozens of others stood along the wall firing their new rifles into the Grimm horde below. Using their various types of Semblances along with the new Dust weapons the knight guards gained a advantage over the overwhelming numbers of Grimm. Even Pastel, Nick, Jeff and the other squiers were out there fighting amongst the other knight guards attempting to keep the Grimm out.

"Glad you could make it girls," General Varns voice boomed from behind them making the girls spin a round to salute the general on reflex. "Arms down weapons up there's still fighting to do now melee fighters get out there and help the others. Ranged fighters stay up here and give support!."

"Yes sir" Numia, Storm and the other girls replied and went to work.

All of the girls readied their weapons and auras while Numia and her sisters activated their psi-armor, sprouting their Faunus ears and tail as they along with Reese and Malinda jumped over the wall and entered the fray of battle while Storm and the others stayed on the wall giving long ranged support with their Dust enhanced bows and crossbows and as a first strike they sent ice arrows out in a long arch freezing four Grimm in place which were quickly finished off by the ever thankful knight guards on the front lines.

Hitting the ground Yuna ran forward her body glowing with her inner psionic energy as she started swinging her katana in deadly sweeping arch's beheading one Beowolf and lopping off the leg of another who quickly got its lower jaw was crushed from a upper cut from Rain's heavy gauntlets sending the now bloody and broken Grimm to the ground where it was finished off by the two other girls with Numia following behind.

The two sisters ran into the fray of battle felling more in their element. One's fists swinging cracking skulls and braking bones while the other brandished her katana moving in quick controlled bursts of speed dodging Grimm attacks and counter attacking while maneuvering into better position, both brood queens in human form working their way into the crowed of Grimm. Rain put all her forward momentum into a roundhouse kick, spinning on her heel to kick a Boarbatusk into a group of Beowolfs, while Yuna slashed wildly at another Beowolf that tried to attack Rain from behind slicing its arms and one leg off before she lopped off its head. Both sisters got back to back as Malinda and Reese joined them each taking out their own far shear of Grimm Malinda with her rifle and bayonet and Reese with her twin bladed revolvers all four girls getting back to back as more Grimm gathered around them.

"You two are crazy you know that," Malinda said as a Beowolf lunged at her only to be split horizontally in half by Numias weapon which at first glance looked like a long handled axe but also seemed somthing more.

As more Grimm gathered around the squier girls a hail of arrows hit the Beowolfs around them who only shrugged off the hits but were not ready for the bolts of lightning that rained down on them from the sky striking the metal arrows and frying the Beowolfs to a crisp. As the roasted smoking bodies fell limp to the ground Numia glanced back at Storm and the other archers on the wall and waved and Storm waved back. Numia was a little thankful Storm was on her side those lightning bolts are like giant tasers that she can direct with pinpoint precision to any conducting material like a arrows metal tip giving Storm a all ranged semblance that's like judgment from the heavens.

"More coming," Yuna shouted over the roar of the battle as two Boarbatusk charged at her jumping into their trademark spin roll.

Rain charged past her sister trying and succeeding to extend her psi-armor effect onto her gauntlets and greaves even though it was even more straining then normal but she needed to stop those two rolling tusks of death. And just before they hit Rain stopped and crossed her arms blocking the impact force as her armored for arms took the hit, her heels digging into the ground to hold her in place. The rolling Boarbatusks grinded against Rains armored gauntlets slowing and then stopping and at that moment Rain grabbed each of the Grimms white tusks each and twisted braking them off and flipping them around impaling them into the Boarbatusks own skulls ending them with a pained squeal.

Rain grinned at her win but didn't let her guard down as there was still a battle to win.

More Grimm started getting closer to the wall as the knight guards forward battleline started to weaken the phalanx wall broken by the Boarbatusks a while ago, but in that moment general Varn landed on the ground and sauntered forward closely watching as the battle unfolded around him moving right for the center line were the Grimm were gaining ground by shear weight of numbers. He was going to end this himself and show the young squiers why hs known as the Ghost.

A fresh group of Beowolf's charged at the young squier girls but were quickly intercepted and cut down by Pastel and his group.

"Glad to see you," Pastel quipped as he blocked a Beowolfs attack and shifted to one side gutting the beast and spinning on his heal beheading it in one stroke.

"Damn isn't there any end to them," Jeff yelled as he ran a Beowolf through with his spear. He then twisted his spears middle part and the rear half separated it into two pieces one with the spear tip in the Grimm and the other half with a small mace head which he promptly used to pummel the beasts head in three times and while it was stunned he retrieved the spear half and spinning around slashed the Beowolfs throat and finished with a uppercut to the jaw with his mace. "They just keep coming," Jeff said winded from all the fighting.

"Just keep fighting there's got to be a end to them," Nick said as he lifted his blooded mace from the crushed skull of a Boarbatusk and backed up a few steps.

"Was that actually not a complaint," Rain said almost in disbelief as she and Nick got back to back.

"Yeah well ya know."

"Hah! you learn something new everyday," Rain replied.

"Focus on the battle." Numia shouted as he finished off yet another Grimm with her axe.

 _ **"Rooaaah!"**_

The Squiers turned to face the source of the roar seeing not one, not two, not three, but five giant Ursa their jaws and claws stained red with blood of knight guard they have slain to get to this point.

Numia grinned in the face of a real challenge for once. "Jeff," she called out to the spear men who turned to her in surprise. "seperate us and those Ursa from the other grimm," she ordered knowing that the boys semblance was earth control and would be useful here. Can't let the other Grimm interfere in her fun.

"Huh? oh... ok," Jeff somewhat reluctantly but determined stretched out his arms guestering to the ground surrounding the squier's and the five Ursa. The ground shook as a twenty foot ring wall of earth rose up isolating the five Ursa along with the squiers from the rest of the battle.

"What now were stuck in here with them!" Nick yelled in protest on Numias plan.

"And there it is," Rain quipped.

"Ugh!."

"That was a good call but what are you planning?" Malinda asked sounding some what stressed.

Numia depressed a button on her weapon that extended her axe's long handle into a longer pole and with a flick the axe head unfolded into a three foot long serrated scythe blade with a one foot version on the opposite side. It was custom weapon that she had the blacksmiths back at Rasenden fortress make on special order along with her sisters weapons. It is quite convenient to have lots of money to grease the wheels of the world sometimes.

Numia calmly walk forward to the Ursa's with her scythe at her side while her fellow squiers watched in worried anticipation. "Don't worry I got this covered."

"Is she crazy she can't take on five Ursa," Nick said in concern partly for her mental state.

"Just watch" Rain said as the other squiers turned back to the one on five battle.

As soon as she was in range the middle Ursa roared and attacked bringing its large clawed paw down. Numia made a quick spin kick that caught the descending paw mid swing deflected it to her side and with a quick leap Numia jumped onto the Ursa,s back with her scythe under its neck.

Numia smiled as she lifted her scythe to touch the neck of the Ursa and with a single swift motion slit its throat and spin jumped away. The Ursa gurgled in a futile attempt to make a noise as its life blood drained out. Numia rotated the scythe in her hand switching to the smaller blade and finished off the Ursa with a quick swing burying the blade into the beast skull and brain leaving both the remaining four Ursa and Numias fellow squier's and the lieutenant stunned at the casual way Numia killed the Ursa like it was nothing.

The remaining Ursa roared again and all of them charged at Numia. Weather they intended to avenge their fallen Grimm or simple that their instincts told them to attack as a group was up to dabait but the results were futile.

Numia dodged the sweeping strikes of the Grimm one after the other like their movement's were all to slow for her. Numia then dashed forwards between two of the Ursa twirling her scythe around her lopping off one arm from one Ursa and a leg from another before ending them with two dash slashes severing both their upper and lower torsos. Both upper and lower halves falling into their own bloody pools of gore which horrified the squiers making some winch.

"Oh man that's brutal," Nick muttered.

The last two Ursa tried to attack from two different directions but they missed yet again as Numia jumped up just before the attack and shifted her scythe back to its axe form bringing it down onto one Ursas head splitting it through vertically. As the two halves fell two different directions the last Ursa attacked Numias exposed back but again missed as its intended bit was caught by Numias weapon instead. The Grimm chomped at the metal axe but didn't let go using its larger mass to push the lighter human back but suddenly the movement stopped and the Ursa looked at its intended victim only to see the eyes of a predator that had no fear of the Grimm it was struggling with and for a moment the Grimm hesitated and relented with its forward movement only for Numia to twist her axe out of the Ursas mouth and again transformed it into a scythe and swung it upwards burying it into the soft underside of the Grimms skull, the tip poking out from the forehead.

The other squier's looked on stunned once again at the ease at which Numia had defeated the five Ursa but their internal thoughts were interrupted when they heard a clapping sound from behind them.

"Well done," general Varn congratulated clapping his hands, the lieutenant saluted the general as he approached Numia and stopped in front of her, his eyes meeting hers. "Your not from Xanadu are you little miss."

The general had suspected such ever since first seeing the odd semblance of the three sisters had but he didn't have any evidence... until now. The fact one squier had single handedly defeated five Ursa was clear evidence that she was in fact a experienced fighter and not a rookie. And that begged the question why would a seasoned fighter present themselves as an inexperienced rookie.

Numia blankminded for a moment as she realised that she had over done it in the heat of battle, but she really couldn't help it as soon as she saw those Ursa she just got a strong urge to try out her weapons alternate form and fight without holding back. Shaking her head Numia recomposed herself. "Yeah guess you found me out." she said shrugging.

For a moment general Varn scrutinized the girl and her supposed sisters. "Well whatever your story is it can wait until after we deal with the Grimm. But once that is done we will talk later understood," he said stearnley.

Internally Numia gulped. "Understood... sir."

General Varn ordered Jeff to lower the earth wall so they could rejoin the battle. Varn unholstered his own weapons a bastared sword from his back and a revolver from his waist.

The earthen wall dropped and the Grimm just charged at them. A Beowolf' swung its clawed hand only for it to passed clean through the general like he wasn't there. Varn just pointed his revolver at the back of the Beowolfs head as it pased through him and pulled the trigger blowing out the front of the Beowolfs head leaving a burning wound in the now half skull from the 'fire' Dust round. Five more Beowolf's attacked him but none of their attacks connected and with a single 360 degree swing of his bastard sword decapitated all of them. General Varn glanced back at the squiers who were now just standing in wonderment of their generals powers and skill.

"Get moving squiers there's more fighting to be done," the general barked shaking the squiers out of their daze.

The squiers and general all rejoined the battle all of them cutting through the quickly decreasing numbers of Grimm as they fought together as one. All of them unawares that they were being watched by the one responsible for the Grimm attacks.

* * *

On a hill a mile away a cloaked figure stood watching the battle unfold before her.

The sound of battle and cry's of the dying and wounded meeting the cloaks persones ears as a distant noise, their hood obscuring most of the face except for the red glowing eyes, "That's right humans fight. Fight so I can see just how powerful you are so the next time I send my army your city will fall," Grimm queen Salem said to herself as she took in any and all information as to the strengths and weaknesses of the army of Xanadu.

* * *

 **Chapter End**

NOTE

Before you ask yes general Varns semblance is like Obito Uchiha's ability but is different in that he dives through matter instead of teleporting parts of himself.

And also since a lot of your are itching to get to the meat of the story i've decided to make the next chapter the last on Remnant until the RWBY story starts so i'll be giving some info dumps to make up for the content skips. And then were moving about a hundred years into the future back to Earth to explain a plot line about Aliassa and another character from the first arch of my story, and to witness the launching of the first faster than light capabley colony ships that will take humanity to the Koprulu sector.


	11. Chapter 11

**I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who is enjoying my story and, liked, followed and reviewed it. I feel great pride as a writer everytime I hear that someone is enjoying my writing and It's thanks to your continued support that makes my day and helps improve my writing and the ongoing story of the Zerg Swarm Empress.**

* * *

Anyone like the **Devil May Cry** games? well if I was going to add something from that game to my story I wouldn't own it, Capcom would. I would just be creating OCs that are inspired by certain characters in those games nothing more. ;)

* * *

 **[American Blitzkrieg]** Yes I know Im going slow. Sorry. But i'm trying to fill in the timeline gap between the end of the first Zerg-Human war on Earth, up to the events of Halo and Starcraft. I'll try putting in a arch about first contact at Harvest and maybe a arch that goes over the early parts of the Human, covenant war. And of course the Spartan program and the changes to it will be showed.

* * *

Just as a warning I'll be taking a few big creative liberties with certain types of Grimm and Salems powers in my story.

* * *

 **Chapter 11, Alliances**

 **Planet** Remnant

 **Continent** Avalon

 **Northern desert** Zerg hive cluster

Solus mentally grumbled as he watched from the eyes of a Hydralisk as his new Zerg, Human, Faunus, hybrid body grew in its cocoon as Vo'zen tended to it.

Solus had to change his time table for making official contact with the Humans and Faunus (according to empress Ellen's plan) even though it was but a minor inconvenience that the three brood queens had let their secret slip. And that secret was that there was another isolated civilization far to the north in the desert region of Avalon that makes up most of the north of the continent named 'Atlantis'. Named from the ancient kingdom from Earth legends. Granted it was a white lie but it served it's propose in keeping the real truth from the Humans and Faunus for the time being at least. Telling them their neighbor's are space aliens would be to shocking at the moment for them.

But in order to keep up appearance's should the Humans or Faunus ask to come to Atlantis, Solus had his army of Drones and Heavy Drones dig out four concentric rings around the location of his burrowed body, each two miles wide and fifty meters deep. The smallest was three miles in diameter the second six and the third nine and the last twelve. And after that the Drones and Heavy Drones dug a few tunnels to the western coast to the ocean which filled the concentric rings in with water making a series of concentric ring lakes just like the ancient depiction of atlantis by Plato but in reverse with rings of water between rings of land, and in the middle of a desert. The lakes were then separated from the ocean by a series of creep dams that also formed water purifying systems that converted the salty ocean water into freshwater.

Next Solus had the Drones and Overlords transport massive amounts of dirt from other parts of the continent to make farm lands. Creep was modified to form a mineral rich under soil which was covered by the normal dirt, and after that the evolution masters took samples essence of vegetable and fruit seeds held in the evolution chambers bio-data base they planted hundreds of crops, the plants growth accelerated by the creep below that also made their roots systems interconnected.

After that Solus had many new human and Faunus bodies made with each one being a random unique DNA sequence to give the impression they were real people with genetic diversity and not clones. The new bodies were controlled by the Zerg Drones, Queens and Hydralisk who's real zerg bodies remained in the underground hive cluster but the intelligence of each Zerg controlled person was limited and the people of Atlantis would act like NPC's from a rpg game but Vo'zen fixed this by having the bodies mate and have children and accelerating the gestation process and growth of the children and then rapidly educated the new generation of Atlantis using Zerg parasites and hive mind.

This was repeated five times in the course of a month and the population of the kingdom grew to half a million.

The next step was for the the new population of this city to start creating everything that such a kingdom would have like agriculture, industrial infrastructure, a national flag and army, music and any other thing Solus could remember from the nations of Earth that he could copy.

It only took a few months to complete the false kingdom founded by the Zerg but just in case the existence of the Zerg ever got out, Solus made the Zerg themselves integrated into the nation in the form of a kind of divine creature the king of Atlantis and the royal family had control over to complete the illusion.

But even a illusion can become a reality over time.

 **"How much longer"** Solus psionically asked Vo'zen.

 **"Growth near completion. Can use shortly."**

Solus sighed at the boredom of waiting and decided to go over his developing theories concerning Zerg psionic abilities and auras, semblances and souls of those on Remnant. From all the evidence and experiments so far conducted by Vo'zen and the other evolution masters it seems that the soul does indeed exist as evidenced by it's influence on the body in the form of psionic powers, which include auras and semblances. The kicker was that the type of power that manifests can be controlled and regulated resulting in psi-armor, telepathy, auras or semblances and the like or let's just say shape shifting in the form of the sprouting Faunus body parts like ears and tails by the three brood queens hybrid bodies which although a accident was very informative.

The power was like a type of psionic cell control that made the cells of the body expand and compress, shift and change very quickly in a controlled rate and shape.

Such a fully controlled ability would be a great evolution for the Zerg Phantoms and could have other uses.

Based on their knowledge of biology and the experiments so far Solus and his evolution masters came to the conclusion that differing psionic powers like those of Humans from Earth (whose powers are descended from the Valkyrur) and those of Remnant are influenced by the subtle architecture of their emotions, instincts consciousness and subconsciousness. The bases of which is their brain architecture and essence (DNA) which on a closer inspection and seen in a new light have been discovered to have quantum resonance qualities, the discovery of which was only possible because the evolution masters of Ellen's swarm have learned to use the scientific method to understand the universe and it's elements to in increase their understanding of their work much like Humans and Protoss.

The structure of Essence (DNA) and it's its molecular and atomic component's along with the architecture of all cells and how the brain connects the consciousness and subconsciousness and emotions and instincts all together creates psionic potential through a quantum resonance effect that connects a persons body and mind to their soul in a two way connection which is normally just a one way connection.

Solus mentally hummed as he continued to think.

With this information gathered Solus could create a working hypothesis of the soul and how it was connected to someones body and mind by this quantum resonance of essence and body architecture. Supposedly the connection between the body and soul was normally only one way, with the life experiences, memories, thoughts, emotions, will and desires, of a life form or person influencing the shape and nature the soul, although in truth Solus had know idea how that would work or look like.

But if the structuring of essence (DNA) was just right, it created a quantum level, two way connection that granted psionic powers. But as said before the nature, type and form of such abilities can be influenced by the consciousness, subconsciousness, emotions and instincts based on the brain's structuring so it was not just the structuring of essence but the total biological structuring of a lifeform top to bottom that can influence the very existence and nature of all of its psionic abilities one has.

'No wonder messing around with essence too much can destroy one's psionic potential,' Solus mused with a mild headache from all the complex thinking.

As Solus thought to himself his new bodies cocoon split open, the muscular male body all covered in goo slid down to the creep floor as it's cocoon dissolved.

 **"Vessel ready,"** Vo'zen projected shaking Solus out of his thoughts.

Solus directed his mind to the vessel forming telepathic connection with it and took control while leaving his Behemoth body in a comatose state as he focused all of his thoughts on to controlling his new form.

The new vessel for Solus blinked its blue eyes opening them for the first time and started flexing its arms and legs like a newborn as Solus got used to it but within a few moments he adapted and could control it like it was always his and he stood up ignoring the goo on his body and silver hair, flexing his hands as he looked at them reveling in the new experience and form. He had controlled many Zerg like this before, many times but this time it was his new body for him only so it didn't have another mind in it so it was also different.

The new body was the culmination of all the research the zerg evolution masters had gained on Remnant so far so it was a perfected version of the bodies Numia, Rain and Yuna have.

During their analysis and experiments of the Humans and Faunus essence the evo-masters discovered a few things.

One being that the structuring of the Humans and Faunus biology while although able to create a two way connection to the soul and generate a aura and semblance are not optimized to handle the connection very well, resulting in a weak aura that takes longer to recharge and their bodies are less able to support the semblance very well, at least compared to Valkyrur like Ellen and Aliasse.

The second discovery was that there were a few qualities concerning the essence of the lifeforms of Remnant that looked oddly like the signatures of artificial manipulation or creation that was different from how Zerg alter essence and while many generations had passed. It would seem that life on Remnant did not evolve on their own but could all be a result of some other species creating them. And the first one that comes most to mind is the Xel'naga (or Forerunner's depending which name you prefer or who you ask).

This meant that the world of Remnant and everything on it could be a massive experiment created by the Xel'naga or their AI creations the monitors. And since connections to Valkyrur essence was also made it could mean that the Valkyrur of Earth could have originated on Remnant and then have been transported to Earth for some reason?.

Solus hummed in contemplation of everything he had learned while walking around the evolution chamber for a few minutes twisting his torso left and right while also flexing his arms stretching the stiff new muscles of his new body while also making noises with his new mouth to learn how to speak.

He stopped his pacing in front of Vo'zen.

"Et feelSS... diffeREnt frooom my old BodY. IT Will taKe some GeTTing used To," Solus said still learning to speak with a mouth properly as he looked at his own hand closing it into a fist and opening it over and over. "HoW... arE tha... oThers?" he asked Vo'zen.

"Queens connecting to puppet bodies. Ready to travel in short time."

Solus hummed in Acknowledgment, (Something his empress had done before a few times) as he used the hivemind to check on the progress of the evo-masters he put in charge of creating a airship.

As he looked through the eyes of a Zergling Solus saw that the ship was mostally completed. It looked like a wide, oval shaped white blimp with a similar shaped hard structure extending out from below it, the total length was about two hundred feet. In truth it was a creep construct made to look like metal and wood and functions using the same knowledge and technology of Dust as the other nations.

"WeLL thEn I SUppose I shOuld et, get cLeaned up and put sOme Clothes On," Solus noted as a Zergling approached with a folded pair of clothes held in it's blade arms. Since most clothes people wear are made from animal fur or leather fabricating such things was easy for the zerg to build just like the airship.

The clothes consisted of a pair of underwear, blue jean pants, a gray vest and a red and gold overcoat. The vest, coat and pants had some thin but strong silver-gold overlapping armor plates at the shoulders, outer for arms, outer thigh's and front for legs, with a ribcage shaped armor on the front of the vest that looked like a armored ribcage.

Solus cleaned up and put the clothes on and looked to another smaller cocoon sitting ten feet from him. The cocoon popped and dissolved, revealing a large organic looking six foot long sword. It's shape was that of a large double edged sword that had the blade extended more to one side, allowing the blade to extend down over the handle on one side.

Solus pulled the oversized silver and red sword out of its slimy cavity and flicked it with ease cleaning most of the after birth goo off and then placed the blade on his back, the molecular adhering system securing it to his back.

Solus then made his way through the hive cluster to the hanger where the bio-construct-airship and his new royal procession of servent's and guards stood waiting to take him to Xanadu for the conference between the three respective groups, Xanadu, Alcon and Atlantis.

* * *

 **Xanadu**

 **Aranna city**

It had been three months since what was called the battle of Verenos by the people of Xanadu. It had been the largest battle with Grimm in recorded history and that greatly disturbed many people, as some believed the Grimm are somehow getting smarter and organising while others dismissed it as a one time event.

Others were relieved by the fact more people had survived the Grimms all incomposing war against humanity and that the people of the northern desert kingdom of Atlantis were coming to make a alliance with them. Although some like Prince Quinn Adelson didn't like the idea of the military being infiltrated by soldiers from a foreign nation. And much like him general Varn and newly appointed general Titus Arestrom were somewhat unnerved by the idea they were spied on, but as military men they understood the need to get the lay of a new land and anyone living there.

The story the three sisters, (Numia, Yuna, Rain) gave was that a ten person group they were apart of was sent south along the western coastline of Avalon from their home nation of Atlantis to search for new safe lands to inhabit or to find more people to form a alliance or trade deal with. Their mission had started ten months ago and after a few months of searching they had found the northern most part of Xanadu and the small town there. Thay traveled back to their nation to report what they had found and then the three sisters were sent back to Xanadu with some precious metals and gems to infiltrat this new nation and to learn more about Xanadu and its people so their king could decide if they should show themselves to the people of Xanadu or not.

"There it is," Duke called out as Tealle pointed in that direction.

Everyone gathered on the docks turned to see the airship off in the distance. Clearly not of any make or design known by Xanadu or her allies from Alcon or across the ocean.

All along the Aranna city docks throngs of people were gathered in ceremony to greet the King of Atlantis, as the bio construct-airship flew over head and circled around to land at the docks. Everyone was cheering or watching with anticipation as the royal craft landed and floated over a reserved ship dock.

The ship lowered down as close to the water as it could get and ropes were dropped so the dock workers could quickly tie them to the docks T-shaped cleants securing the floating ship to the ground. As everyone watched in anticipation the bottom front of the ship opened into a ramp lowering and dropping onto the dock and soon after the king of Atlantis along with a procession of beautiful women some in red, blue and gold armor and weapons and others in exotic dresses walked out, with Numia, Yuna and Rain bowing as Solus reached the bottom of the ramp.

"Its good to see you again. Have you been well," Solus asked the superfluous question which was just a show for the humans and Faunus.

Numia replied without raising her head. "Yes, we have been well my king."

Solus then took a look around the docks at the hundreds of people gathered just to see his arrival. At the front of the crowd was Count Barry his son Quinn and four of the council members with general Titus and twenty of his knight guards with more watching from among the crowd. It wasn't every day the king of another nation shows up after all so security was upped.

As he looked around Solus saw many seacraft of different make's and design, some fishing boats and other cargo craft. Among them were seven other airships the same make and modal as Mells, anchored to the docks.

'These must be the airships Mell had brought from the nation on Sanus,' Solus thought reminding himself to send Observers to fully map the planets land masses and sending the order through the hive mind.

As he was observing the docks a man called out to him taking Soluses full attention.

"Allow me to greet you king Solus. Im count Barry Adelson, leader of Xanadu and this is my son prince Quinn Adelson," count Barry greeted extending his hand which Solus took and the two leaders shook hands.

"Its a pleasure to meet you... count? Barry," Solus replied in proper grammar and speech. He had trained with the human and Faunus vessels of the Zerg queens for the whole two day trip from Atlantis.

Seemingly knowing the kings confusion at the name of his 'title' Barry explained that his ancestor who was a count at the time had funded and lead the expadiction from Sanus to Avalon hundreds of years ago and since then the traditional royal title of Xanadu had been count instead of king or the like. The two leaders of nation's talked a bit about the semantics if names and then left by carriage to the council chambers where they and the others could talk more openly.

As the three guarded carriages left the dockyards a cloaked figure watched from the far edge of the crowd.

"Hmm so hes arrived," Russ mumbled as he left the docks traveling to a privately owned warehouse that had all of its windows boarded up and covered to keep any nosia people from just looking in and seeing what was in there. Russ entered a inner room and within was a floating creature of Grimm with a small spherical body that was covered with bone-like plates and downward pointing spikes that ringed around its lower half, and six red tentacles hanging below it ending in white bony spikes, and a single eye.

As he looked at the Grimm Seer Russ shrugged with a sigh, still not getting used to the fact he's working with Grimm.

He approached the Seer and its inside that was a red smoke changed to the face of Salem the master of all Grimm.

"Report," she spoke through the Seer with all the authority a dark queen was expected to have.

"The king of Atlantis arrived just now. Want should I do?."

On her end in the odd red skyed realm of the Grimm Salem narrowed her eyes in contemplation.

It had been a troublesome thing for not only the Faunus village of Alcon to join in a alliance with Xanadu but now this... Atlantis had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Still it presented a opportunity that if timed correctly would doom Xanadu and after it fell the rest of the nations on the continent of Avalon would fall one after another until all Human and Faunus on the continent was wiped out.

"Do the leaders of Xanadu and Alcon still plan on sending most of their allied forces to the north to clear out the Grimm?" Salem asked through the blackish orb of the Seer.

"Uh yes... but with this new nation joining in I don't know how that will change," Russ replied prompting Salem to hum in thought on her end.

"Continue to observe for now and report any developments that could disrupt... our plans."

"Uh yes I will. But... If I may confirm my grace, {Salem narrowed her eyes in silent annoyance}, You still promise that I 'll be the new king, after that spoiled brat of a prince and his fat father are dead, correct."

Salem thought it through for a millisecond before coming to the same conclusion she came to before and that was that she would kill this fool along with his people after he's lived out his usefulness. But on reflection maybe he and what ever survivors she lets live could be used as spies in other nations after every Human and Faunus town and nation on Avalon are destroyed.

Salem made a cruel ice cold smile. "Yes of course. Just make sure nothing happens to the Seer and report when the allied forces have left Xanadu."

Russ gulped at the ice cold words his new master made. "Understood my grace."

* * *

 **Aranna government building**

 **Xanadu Council hall**

The meeting between the leaders of Xanadu, Bran Lasten of Alcon village and the king of Atlantis the newest arrival went on without a hitch as everyone talked and reminisced about odd and often entertaining topic's and enjoyed the drinks and food that were served before they got to the more serious discussion such as the attempt to take and secure the northern region that borders the Fanged mountains of Xanadu and the desert region that Atlantis lays in.

King Solus explained that his people have never ventured that far south over land because the southern desert is just a sea of sand and Grimm so he had nothing to add to the discussion other than to say that he would be honored if his servant's Numia, Rain and Yuna were allowed to continue their part in the army of Xanadu.

Not wanting to alienate their new friend Count Barry and Bran's Lasten agreed to this and Solus said he would like to join his forces in the operation. The other leaders were more than happy to accept, but Solus also informed them that it would take time to gather such a army and send them so by the time they arrive the operation may be over already, but in all honesty just keeping the mineral rich land was going to be the hard part anyway not clearing the Grimm.

Or so everyone thought.

After spending hours discussing many topics and issues and getting to know one another the meeting ended and everyone left the council hall.

After the meeting Solus was escorted around the city by both general Titus, Numia, Yuna and Rain and the latter three showed him the joy of a chocolate cake and other foods and sweets that the humans had. Afterwords Titus escorted the king around Rasenden fortress, with Solus being quite interested in the Dust weapons from across the ocean, mainly the guns. After talking with some of the weapon smiths and getting General Varns permission (since it was his fortress) Solus gave some of the weapon smiths the design idea for a pair of custom pistols. It took four of the weapon smiths and the better part of the remaining day but the twin handguns were completed, the weapon smiths doing the work for free since it was for a king.

"Hope you enjoy them and may they protect you and slay your enemies your highness," said one of the weapon smiths as he presented the two hand guns to Solus. Bothe were based on the 1911, 45,caliber design from Earth but by some coincidence one of the weapon types Mell brought along with the airships was of a similar if less advanced design which gave the weapon smiths a base to work with and customize. Solus lifted one of the oversized pistols noting the 7 inch barrel and odd grooves on the top of the slide mechanism at the back of each of the hand guns which looked like they were perhaps to big for any human to handle. Good thing Solus was anything but just a human.

Solus attached the also customized leather twin holster for his twin guns around the back of his waist and inserted both of them into the holster that had both pistols handles facing outwards away from each other and then placed the twenty or so mags of fire Dust rounds into his coats inner and outer pockets.

After the tour around the city Solus decided to take count Barry up on his earlier invitation to spend the night at his villa just outside the city.

The next day the combined military forces of both Xanadu and Alcon village marched out of the city on their mission. Their formations of over a thousand troops and two hundred wagons filled with supplies visible for miles provided you have a clear view of the tarren like one group of kids had from a windmill, one of many that dotted the landscape with the farms.

Solus on the other hand had Overseers in high orbit and could see the long troops formations in their entirety as they marched northward. And among the troops he could make out his own three soldiers among them.

"Enjoying the view your highness." said a voice from behind prompting Solus to turnaround from the second floor balcony he was given in count Barry's villa.

"Who? are you. I haven't seen you here before?," Solus asked eyeing the man.

"Oh me. I,m the princes... little helper you could say. I'm here to invite you to a party celebrating the discovery of... yet another human civilization on the continent. [pull's out a letter with a royal seal] That being yours of course."

Solus took the letter and with a swip of his fingernail opening it reveling a royal letter of invitation addressed to King Solus of the people of Atlantis inviting him to a party in a few days.

Internally Solus sighed as the last thing he wants right now is to be caught up in more parties. But he had to keep up appearances and it wouldn't hurt to know more about the nation and people.

Solus smiled. "Tell the prince that I will be attending his party."

* * *

 **Three days later**

 **Fanged mountains northern Pass**

After marching for three whole days straight the allied army made camp at the northern fortress of Galmore the second largest fortress in Xanadu and the main point of knight guard operations in northern Xanadu which was their to protect the miners who work hard pulling ore out of the Fanged mountains southern halves.

The Fanged mountains that surround Xanadu especially in the north are rich in valuable minerals but Grimm are the most prevalent here also so to protect the miners and their families the fortress of Galmore was built to house and supply the local knight guards who also often patrol inside the mines should any Grimm such as the Creep (who likes underground places such as caves or mines) appear. How ever in recent years the once ore rich mines had seen a marked decrease in the amount of ore that was coming out of them. One of the reasons prince Quinn was so focused on gaining access to new lands.

The Faunus rangers and Human knight guards were a little hesitant at first but over the course of months of training drills and Grimm hunting operations together the two groups started to work and fight like a real allied force and more importantly think like allies. Still there were a few trouble makers here and there but they knew their place and did nothing that would risk the alliance.

In Galmores great courtyard and around it the thousand tents of the allied forces were set up to house all the troops who were preparing for the operation that will start tomorrow.

"Aah I haven't walked that far in a long time," exclaimed Duke as he sat down on a wood log.

In front of him was a fire that was slowly cooking a pot of food which Lav slowly stirring.

"So the food done yet or are you just cooking it for you girlfriend Vio" Duke asked teasing Lav.

"Ah would you drop it, she's the one that's been infatuated with me ever since I saved her that one time and she's way too young for me.

"Still Mell was accepting of how Vio felt about you," Duke replied remembering the incident that caused Vio to develop a teenage crush on Lav.

During a stormy day when the three Faunus and the two merchant's were traveling across the ocean months back to buy airships for the trade deal between Alcon and Xanadu a Grimm attacked their airship and knocked both Lav and Vio off the ship and they were stranded for a day on a island which gave Vio time to become infatuated with Lav as he saved her from drowning and protected her from any Grimm on the island. She would have not survived the fall or the Grimm on the island alone but the day they spent there (because Mell had to make repairs to the airship) they... got to know each other, and Vio started to fall in love with the Faunus. Which Mell and Vio's father was unaccepting of. There was also the fact of Vio's age but she didn't seem to mind that unlike everyone else, much to Lav's dismay as he prefers more mature woman.

"Uaah. The food needs a few more minutes till it's done," Lav replied as he sat down, him and Duke noticing Tealle come out of the nearby shower tent which had real hot water thanks to some fire Dust. "Feeling better my dear," Lav asked as Tealle sat down beside Duke and gave a nod.

Tealle glanced over across the semi-circle of tents just as a group of squier girls (which included Numia, Yuna and Rain) were walking past on their way to the shower tent.

[Tealle shrugged exhaling in a sigh]

"Still can't figure out why you get odd feelings around those three," Lav said in part question part statement.

"Uh huh," Tealle replied nodding.

Duke humed to himself as he put a hand on Tealle's shoulder. "Do you think they're keeping something from us?."

Tealle nodded looking into Dukes eyes.

"Do you think they're a threat?" Duke asked.

Tealle thought it over looking back over to the shower tent where some of the female squiers (one being Rain) were standing outside waiting for their turn to clean up. After thinking it over, Tealle shook her head. "No... not to us."

"Not to us Faunus or not to us everyone?" Duke asked for clarification.

"I don't... feel any hostile intent coming from them... concerning anyone in the alliance."

Lav put his hand to his chin thinking this little conundrum over. "Perhaps I should just ask them out right. Lav said using his semblance focusing intently on what he wanted to do and seeing the resulting future or possibility.

Lav stood up and walked over to Rain, Malinda and Reese who took notice of him.

"My dear can I ask you something," Lav stated locking eyes with Rain.

"Yeah... what do you want to ask?"

"Is there something your keeping from us... the alliance. Your nation isn't planning to invade Xanadu are you?" Lav asked in a accusatory tone of voice.

Rain was somewhat surprised that Lav had the gull to just come up to her and ask if her people was planning anything against the alliance but considering his semblance maybe he had keeped a memory of what happened to him and the other Faunus of his village when the Zerg took them as short term test subjects that one time.

Rain was then vary suspicious of him and glanced over at Tealle and Duke remembering that Tealle could sense the psionic connection between Rain and her real Zerg body and psionic power in general thanks to her semblance being a extra sensory type ability.

"No," Rain replied flatly. "I don't know what your going on about but Atlantis is fully committed to joining both your people and Xanadu in a mutually beneficial alliance."

Lav just hummed to himself as this look into the possible future ended and he was instantly back on the log with his friends.

Once again Lave walked over to Rain.

"Excuse me miss Rain but can I ask you a question," Lav asked again and again and again and again and again.

Lav used his limited five minute precognition semblance ten times asking in different ways and trying different ways but not getting anything incriminating.

Lav sat on the log and crossed his arms thinking as Duke and Tealle watched him.

". . . Are you going ask... wait you did already ask her didn't you," Duke said as Lav stood up and stirred the pot again.

"Yes and I didn't learn anything that would indicate that she was lying or a threat to us," Lav replied as he tasted the lightly seasoned beef stew.

In truth Lav had attacked Rain out right in one of the possible futures he saw and learned about her psi-armor and the odd effect of her growing Faunus like ears and tail but real Faunus rarely if ever have both a tail and ears or horns together. Still it was a very informative event and as Lav also learned of how Rain and her sisters are unwilling to escalate things if they don't need to and just how skilled they are in battle.

"Supper is ready," Lave said as he Duke and Tealle each got a bowl of steaming beef stew.

Rain glanced over to the three feasting Faunus feeling a little hungry herself and wishing that these human bodies were not as inefficient then her Zerg body as they needed to eat more then one time a day and excrete the waste just as often. Even so Rain had what could be called fun in this human puppet and from all the new experiences she and her sisters have had. Still she had half a mind to have a evolution master enhance her puppet body so it could process the minerals and hydrogen from creep much like how empress Ellen had done so many years ago.

"Ah that felt good," Storm exclaimed as she exited the shower tent stopping just short of bumping into Rain who was transfixed buy the beef stew being eaten ten meters away."Rain something wrong?" Storm asked noticing the expression of hunger on Rains face.

Rain turned to Storm in slight surprise. "Wh aah nothing, just a little hungry is all."

Storm was suddenly reminded of her own empty belly as the allied forces had only stopped once a day to rest and eat during the trip to the north. "Ah yeah i'm a little hungry myself. After you get cleaned up let's eat."

Rain nodded and entered the shower tent along with Malinda and Reese just as Yuna, Numia, Misa and the other girls were drying off in the center room connected to six other individual shower rooms.

* * *

 **Fanged mountain pass**

 **Fifty miles north of Galmore fortress**

 **Allied forces caravan**

 **10 AM**

After their final day of rest and preparation the allied forces moved into the mountain pass leading through the fanged mountains with Bron and his Faunus rangers scouting ahead of the main forces.

Bron and the rest of the Faunus rangers eyed the high walls of the mountain pass that was covered in scattered trees, crevice's and the odd cave here and there, any one of which could be used as a hiding place for Grimm.

"See anything," Bron asked his men as they slowly made their way deeper into the mountains.

"Nothing yet sir," Lav called back from the front.

Bron made a telling snort as he knew if anyone would know when the Grimm would appear it would be Lav considering his... peculiar semblance but weather or not it created alternate timelines was too much of a headache for the bull Faunus Bron to get into so he focused on watching out for Grimm.

After another two hours of marching through the rather small mountain pass the ranger scouts finally reached a wide open landscape almost twenty seven mile's wide that looked as if a mountain was just lifted up and threw somewhere else, leaving a large bowl shaped area of open space between the remaining mountains which allowed a forest to grow.

As the Faunus proceeded a little further they came across a open field with the broken and burned out remains of a old camp along with many half eaten and decomposed remains of the inhabitant's. No doubt the unlucky members of the last expedition to these lands.

Being respectful of the dead the Faunus started collecting and lining up the bodies of the Knight guards and the civilian surveyors. They took care to keep any identifying objects such a the ID tags knight guards have or pictures or good luck charms soldiers sometimes carry and placed them at the feet of each body all of which were little more but bones and torn rotted clothes at this point.

Once the main column of troops arrived Bron told general Varn about the bodies and what his men done. General Varn thanked Bron for his actions and asked where the bodies were and the general ordered his men many of whom were survivors of the first failed foray in to this area, to identify them for future transport back to their families for proper burial.

The general also knew of three family members, the theson siblings who had already seen the lines of bodies and no doubt could make their own guess as to the possibility of their parents being among them.

Knight guards looked among the bodies for their lost friends and comrades as Pastel, Nick and Storm watched with saddened and yet hopeful expressions wondering if their parents were anong the line of corpses.

"Come on let's at least look for them," Pastel said as he walked off to the line of bodies.

"What does it matter," Nick exclaimed as he subconsciously clinched his fist.

Pastel stopped turning around. "What does it matter?. Our parents could be over their, we should at least be the ones to bury them."

Nick looked Pastel in the eyes."And do you really want to see their rotting corpses."Nick shot back. "Their dead let's leave it at that. The'll get buried soon enough anyway."

Pastel was taken aback by his brothers behavior. "But their OUR parents, we should be the ones to lay them to rest."

"So WHAT we have a job to do here and getting distracted WON'T help us fight Grimm."

"WHATS wrong with you. YOU loved mom and dad just as much as us."

"Uh guys?" Storm squeaked as her older and younger brother continued to argue loudly catching the attention of everyone around them.

"If you want to CRY over a pile of bone's BE my guest," Nick shouted back as he stormed off.

"FINE be that way," Pastel replied marching off to look for his parents bodies.

"Whats going on?" Storm turned around to see all the other squiers.

"I... I don't know? they just started yelling at each other," Strom replied with a distressed expression.

"What did they argue about?" Yuna asked.

Storm hesitated herself given the personal nature of the discourse. But these were her friends and if she couldn't trust them then who. After explaining about how her parents died Storm looked crestfallen as she held onto her left arm and stared down.

"Hey we'll figure this out," Numia said prompting Storm to look up at her.

"It'll be a little weird if all of us go talk to the two brooding emos so... everyone other then Reese and Jeff you can go help set up camp like the general ordered," Numia said.

"What why us!?" Reese asked with Jeff listening for the reasoning.

"Because Jeff and Nick are buddy buddies and you and Pastel are dating so it will be easier if you two talk to them."

Reese's face blushed bet red as she fidgeted and Jeff sighed.

"Don't worry Reese we won't tell anyone," Yuna promised as there are rules to knight guards dating and marrying each other.

"Ah the responsibilities of friendship," Jeff quipped as he sauntered off to find Nick.

"I'll... I guess i'll go find Pastel," Reese said nervously as she walked of to find him.

Rain, Yuna, Malinda and the rest just stared back at Numia as she blinked. "What?"

"Nothing," Rain replied as she and the others walked off to help everyone else set up camp that will be the allied forces forward base.

 **[With Jeff]**

Jeff walked off in the general direction Nick had following his trail into the forest surrounding the ruined camp. Jeff made sure to keep his wits about him self, looking side to side keeping a eye out for Grimm. He didn't go through all the trouble of enduring the harsh training just to get ambushed by some random Grimm and he still had to earn enough money to help his family back in the western province after their farm had two straight years of bad crops. Jeff thought it was a great thing that he had a earth based semblance which would be invaluable to a farmer but first he had to live through the mandatory four years of service in the knight guards before he could return home and put it to use for his family's farm.

Jeff continued to walk until reaching a rather large tree. "Nick are you there," he called out.

"Jeff?... what are doing here," Nick called out from behind the tree.

Jeff walked around to the three to the other side and saw Nick leaning against it brooding.

 **[With Reese]**

Fidgeting with her hands as she approached Pastel. "So uh why are you and Nick fighting?"

Standing up from a body Pastel sighed rubbed the back of his neck before turning around.

"I don't know... Nick just started acting funny and... well he didn't want to see mom and dad again."

Reese tilted to her head. "But uh aren't they,-"

"Rotting corpse's," Pastel said flatly making Reese shrink back a little and hold herself, reminded of her own mother who had passed.

Reese felt saddened at the fact Pastel and his siblings had lost not just one parent but both of them. But still he had his younger brother and sister. Being a only child and one to a noble family at that ment Reese had very few interactions with people outside of her immediate family and the party's they would hold to flaunt their money and political capital or even to make new connection's to other rich nobles. Some of which her father tried to arranged a marriage to their sons so as to join the two families in a alliance of shorts. It was for this very reason that Reese joined the knight guards, so she could get away from her fathers plans for her future and be her own woman. It was just her luck that the knight guards allows anyone to join even if from the nobility, and her father had zero say in the matter thanks to general Varns influence in the government and military. Reese may not like her father givin the way he tries to control her life but she would never want to see him hurt and maybe that,s why she understood Nicks feelings.

"Pastel maybe Nick just doesn't want to see his parents in... THAT condition. Maybe he only wants to remember them like they were when they were... alive."

 **[With Jeff and Nick]**

"Why the hell would anyone in their right mind want to see their parents like that," Nick exclaimed, tears escaping his eyes.

"Yeah I can understand. I... I found my grandma Linda dead in her rocking chair one day."

Nick turned to Jeff wondering why he had brought it up.

"I always saw my grandma as some immortal old lady who would live to be a hundred. But... she died. Peacefully one day when it was just me and her at home." Nick wiped the tears off his own face as he listened to Jeff's story. "I was only... six... seven I think. I just thought she was sleeping in her favorite rocking chair like always... but when I went to ask her to get me some cookies that mom had placed high on the counter for me she didn't respond. I touched her hand and I... felt how cold her body was... she was... gone. When dad and mom returned from town buying supplies I was crying on the front porch and I told them grandma was gone. I knew because grandfather had died in the preceding Year. Mom cried for hours as dad took grandma Linda and buried her in the family graveyard on the farm."

"You loved your grandmother didn't you," Nick stated more the asked as he could see the emotion on Jeff's face.

"Heh yeah, she always spoiled me rotten buying me candy whenever she took me into town. I think I had tried every kind of candy in the candy store back then."

Nick laughed. "Ha ha ha ha ha. So that's why you were a little plump when I first saw you."

"He he ah yeah well i'm ripped now."Jeff said flexing both arms. "aren't I after going through all that jogging, exercising and sparing we all did. I still remember that one time you broke my nose."

"Oh uh sorry."

"Eh, it's fine."

 **[With Pastel and Reese]**

Pastel sighed not considering that's how Nick felt. "Yeah your right. I guess he only wants to remember the way they were... instead of as lifeless bodies."

"If you don't mind me asking why did you want to find them so badly. I mean I understand why but... it seemed like you had another reason to find their bodies."

Pastel stared at Reese for a moment and she turned a little more red. "Its because one day back when I was still little and... Nick and Storm were just knee high, too young too remember a friend of my fathers was killed by a Nevermore that swooped down and just took him, and they never found his body. His family had a funeral. With a empty coffin. I can still remember the look on the wife's face. It wasn't just sadness that her husband was gone but the fact that she would never see him again. Not even to say goodby."

Reese listened and started to understand that the wife would always have just been told that her husband was dead and would never see his body for her self and never have complete closer over the loss. "I understand. You still had hope that your parents were alive somewhere maybe."

Reese and Pastel shared a moment of mutual understanding as they looked into each others eyes. "Uh yeah.. but I know that their gone now. I guess I need to see them for myself to get passed... loosing them."

Reese grabbed Pastels hand. "Let's look together."

"Oh... ok"

 **[With Jeff and Nick]**

"So should we get back with the others now. Some Grimm could ambush us out here," Jeff cautioned.

"Yeah lets go."

After a few minutes Nick and Jeff returned to the clearing to find hundreds of people of the allied forces working together to set up the makeshift camp and prepare defenses if Grimm should attack.

As they walked along they noticed general Varn, Lieutenant Alders and guild master Bron talking. They passed by noticing that the leaders of the allied forces were discussing how best to defend against a Grimm attack. And then lieutenant Alders noticed the two squiers walking away.

"You squiers there, come here," the lieutenant shouted to them.

Nick and Pastel turned to the three leaders looking at them and saluted. "Uh yes sir's," Nick replied as he and Jeff saluted the officer.

"At ease, we just need you two to use your semblances to help build the defenses up."

Jeff and Nick breathed a sigh of relief thinking they were in trouble for running off without permission. "Oh, yes sir."

"Follow me then," the lieutenant said leading them away.

For most of the remaining day Jeff and Nick helped the others to build up a twenty foot high wenty foot thick earthen wall around camp, flat on the outside and with ramps on the inside along with metal tipped wood spikes outside it and other defenses surrounding the camp for when the Grimm attacked which was a matter of when not if. After that they then built up a few earthen buildings in the camp with metal reinforcements. Metal building parts had been carried in wagons in preparation for the construction of a forward base and with the semblances of these two boy's and a few other's in mind who could be used to create buildings and defenses far quicker then just by hand.

Completing their work a little after after sun down Nick, Jeff and all the others all got some rest returning to their tents that now surrounded a steel reinforced earthen tower at the center of camp that acted as a lookout point and archer nest if any Grimm get in the camp.

"Ahhh im beat" Nick exclaimed as he laid down in the tent he and his brother Pastel shared.

Nick looked with a tired face at the empty spot his brother would sleep in thinking weather or not he should apologise for yelling before.

"Hey Nick supper's ready if you want some," Storm called to him from the tents opening.

"Oh uh i'll be there in a bit... just got to take a breather."

"Ok. Just come shortly or you'll miss out," Storm replied as she left.

After a few minutes Nick couldn't resist the smell of cooked food especially with a empty grumbling stomach after doing all that work.

As he walked to the ring of logs his friends and siblings were eating at Nick saw Pastel sitting beside Reese. The boy sighed and shrugged deciding to apologise.

"Hay Pastel," Nick called out as Malinda handed him a bowl of his own food."Uh thanks Malinda."

Pastel turned to his brother. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry for... yelling at you before I just-"

"No no i'm sorry too." Pastel cut in. "I should have considered how you felt about finding mom and dad."

"Um yeah... did you find them?" Nick asked as he sat down eating a spoon full of his meal.

"Yeah. One of the other knight guards who was apart of the original expedition recognised dads... uh body."

"Both him and mom were together," Storm added.

From that Nick could already understand that mom and dad had died together.

 **[Cut to over head view of the camp]**

Hundreds of tents and dozens of fires were set between a central tower and outerwall with hundreds of people walking, talking and eating down below.

 **[Cut to a mountain cliff overlooking the allied forces camp]**

As the humans and Faunus down below got settled in for the night a Grimm Seer watched them and through it Queen Salem. "Begin the attack."

 **[Cut to the forest outside camp]**

A pair of red glowing eyes illuminated the dark forest around it and was joined by another pair of eyes and another and another and many more as they all made their way to the allied camp.

 **[Cut to the camps south gate]**

Four guards two Human and two Faunus stood guarding the gate into camp talking and trying to not fall asleep until their shift is over.

[Rumbling noise followed by snapping noise from small trees as they were knocked down by something big]

"You hear that!" asked one of the guards as they unseathed their weapons looking into the treeline.

Just as they did a group of Beowolf,s numbering tweety plus a alpha of their kind charged out of the tree line just fifty meters from the earthen wall followed quickly by ten Boarbatusk,s and two King Taijitu,s.

"Grimm. Sound the alarm," yelled one of the Faunus who had night vision and could clearly see all the Grimm charging at them in the darkness.

All four of the guards ran into the wall, one hit the release for the steel gate Nick had formed slamming the heavy metal gate down into place while another guard ran to a alarm bell and rang it like a mad man signaling to the entier camp that the Grimm were attacking that side of camp and hundreds of knight guards and rangers scrambled to get their weapons and man the wall, many moving from the northern half of camp to reinforce the others in the southern half as Grimm piled up against the wall like a sea of black fur and claws leaving the opposite side of the camp with lesser manpower.

 **[With general Varn]**

General Varn, Lieutenant Alders and Bron were all having a tactical meeting about tomorrows operation to begin clearing out Grimm in the area but were taken completely off guard when the alarm bells sounded off.

"A Grimm attack but why?. Why now?," Varn shouted out loud as the three men ran out of the command tent to see a one of a king Taijitu's heads raise over one of the gates and a second King Tijitu do the same further down the wall.

"I don't care why or how the damn Grimm are upon us," yelled Bron who unslung his heavy shield hammer. It worked well combined with his semblance.

"Agreed so lets fight like allies and repel this preemptive attack by the Grimm and survive to talk later," stated Lieutenant Alders.

Bron and Varn both didn't like the logic in that statement because it meant the Grimm had a leader somewhere but if one understood Grimm behavior it was the only logical reasoning behind this attacks timing.

[sniff, sniff] "I'll be with you all later I smell Grimm this way," Bron said as he ran off the opposite side of camp from where the alarm was being sounded and the sound of battle was.

 **[With the squiers]**

"A King Taijitu," yelled Nick as he and the others saw the serpent's head raise over the wall, its forked tongue lapping the air as the clamor of battle erupted all over the camps south perimeter.

Allied troops shot steel and Dust tipped ice arrows at it freezing half the giant snakes head in a ice block forcing it to retreat but shortly after the other head shot up and grabbed one of the knight guards from off the wall swallowing him whole before it to was it hit by a hail of arrows and also retreated.

"Doesn't matter," everyone turned to Rain."We just have to stop it and its friends."

"Yeah we trained for this," Jeff said with confidence.

"Ok but lets deal with something our own size we are still squiers remember," Pastel stated as he drew his sword followed by the others drawing their weapons.

"You can support the three of us while we deal with the big ones. You all just keep the other Grimm off us ," Numia said to the twenty gathered squiers.

"Ok but lets stay together understood," Pastel agreed as they all ran after that King Taijitu.

 **[With Duke, Tealle and Lav]**

The three Faunus were back to back fighting off grimm that had gotten in the wall after ten Boarbatusk blitzed into the gate killing the guards when they were distracted by the alarm, keeping the gate up so their buddies could get in. And it was all Lav and his semblances fault that they were being heroes at the moment all on their own after the attack on the other side of camp had drew everyone else's attention. What few other Rangers and knight-guard's were left on this side of camp were doing their best to aid the three Faunus and keep Grimm out and eliminating the few that got in.

Duke slammed his axe gun down splitting a Beowolf in half and fired off three blasts of his revolver axe grenade launcher at more Grimm blowing them to pieces even as more pored through the still open rear gate. Those rangers on the center tower also supported the defense of the front and rear gates both with long range arrow barrages but the Grimm kept coming. "Damn why the hell would Grimm attack now of all times and why here?!."

Tealle shot five arrows in quick succession hitting five Beowolf's the Fire dust burning out their chest cavities.

"We can talk about that later now focus on fighting... oh no!"Lav said as he got another one of his visions. "Tealle, Duke switch to ice dust and cover me until I lower the gate."

"Ok I trust those visions of yours," Duke said as he beheaded another Beowolf and swapped out his ammo and Tealle notched a ice arrow on her bow.

Lav ran forwards like a mad man twisting, dodging and rolling between the charging Grimm as he slashed with his twin daggers each cut freezing the monsters bodies, arms and legs in place while he made his way to the lever used to lower the gate. Tealle shot at any Grimm that tried to attack him using her semblance to find the ones that posed the most risk to Lav while Duke protected her back.

Lave jumped over a alpha Beowolf and slashed its back and legs using up that last of his daggers current Dust mag keeping the beast off him long enough to hit the lever and slam the gate down into place. Not a moment later something big hit the gate shaking its foundations.

"What the hell was that," Duke shouted as he Tealle and Lav reloaded.

The large Grimm outside the gate backed up and slammed into it again and again bending the steel gate little by little and shaking pieces off the earthen wall.

"We need help," Tealle said with the other two men agreeing.

"Yeah but mostly everyone is off fighting everywhere but here."

 **[With Numia, Rain and Yuna]**

Numia her sisters and the other squiers ran up to the wall where the closest King Taijitu was and joined the many other knight guards and Faunus rangers on the wall as they fired arrows and bullets at hundreds of Grimm as they clamored at the wall many stuck on the spikes placed outside the wall.

"This is just like before," Pastel yelled over the clamor of battle as Storm fired off a few of her lightning bolts at the steel arrows stuck in the scaly hide of the King Taijitu along with a dozen other archers and rifle men, making it back off a distance crushing other Grimm in its pathe of retreat.

"We'll clear out the Grimm at the wall and then take out that big snake. Everyone just support us and protect the wall and each other," Numia said as the other squiers listiened.

It had been quite a shock to the other squiers to here that the three sisters were in fact spys from another nation, but nothing the three of them did was a act and they had no intentions of harming Xanadu just learning more about the country. But it was still quite a while until everyone was back to normal and completely trusting again, but once everything had been explained the other squiers started accepting the truth they started feeling trusting of the three sisters again. Mostly.

"Ok but not all of us have ranged weapons," Jeff reminded.

"Then use your semblances or help the others guard the gate over there," Numia replied gesturing to the nearby gate that had two dozen knight guards behind it their weapons at the ready if the Grimm busted it down.

"Ah ok," Jeff replied using his earth mover semblance to make a dozen pitfall traps outside the wall and dropping dozens of Grimm into dirt prison's that quickly became their graves as the Faunus rangers and knight guard rifle men along the wall took the opportunity shooting fire or ice rounds into the pits freezing or burning the Grimm to death.

"Has anyone ever told you how convenient you are Jeff," Malinda told him smiling.

"Uh thanks," Jeff replied with a blush.

Moments later Numia and her sisters activated their psi-armor growing their tail and ears with glowing body lines as they jumped over the wall landing between two pitfall traps and charged at the King Taijitu killing any Grimm that got in the way. The giant snake saw them coming and coiled up and struck at the closest one.

Unfortunately for the king Taijitu that was Rain.

Rain expanded her psi-armor to her weaponised pieces of armor on her hands and feet and dug in her heels taking the King Taijitus strike. The impact force only pushing her back ten feet as she grabbed the beasts jaws and held on like a iron vice as her sisters jumped over her on top the snake. Yuna landed drawing her katana and started slashing left, right, left, right, as she ran along the Grimm snakes back cutting a series of slash wounds along it's spine.

The King Taijitu second head reared up and bit at Yuna only for her to block the attack just as Numia jumped over her. Numia flew above the second head and in one graceful cut of her scythe beheaded the beast.

The King Taijitus first head bucked around from the pain of losing the second flicking Rain up into the air like a ragdoll. The remaining head opened its maw to swallow her whole as she fell back down but this wasn't to be as Storm sent another lightning bolt flying at the arrows still imbedded in the beast's now exposed underside. The bolt of silver lightning struck the King Taijitu making it flich just enough for Rain to land a smashing blow atop its head, the impact force shattering the skull and pulping the brain matter underneath as it slammed into the ground.

As the one King Taijitu died so to did its counterpart farther down the wall. Defeated by the similar heroic efforts of the Faunus rangers and Human knight guards combined efforts.

"Well things seem to be under control at least," Lieutenant Alders stated as he and general Varn both watched the battle a ways back from the wall as the two King Taijitu,s few felled.

"I wouldn't say that just yet. Grimm don't attack in large numbers like this, its just like at that battle at Verenos village months ago. And if the Grimm have a leader..." General Varn stated and then paused.

"What general?" Alders asked just as concerned with what his leader realised.

General Varn turned to the Lieutenant with a grave face. "If they have a leader then they have tactics."

The lieutenants face paled at the realization. "This attack is a diversion!... Bron... he said he sensed Grimm before running in the direction of the rear gate."

A number of warnings and cursing sounded from the knight guards and rangers on the wall snatching the two officers attention.

Varn and Alders marched their way up to the wall and in between the already compact grouping of people to see what over the wall which was not good news.

Sprinting out from the tree line were nine Death stalkers charging for the camp wall, the very same ones that had wiped out the last expedition to these lands.

Pastel and his younger siblings saw the massive scorpion like Grimm and looked each other over and nodded understanding that the time for a little revenge was at hand as they jumped down over the wall and joined Numia and her sisters as they culled the Grimm at the wall.

"Hay what are those squiers doing their going to get themselves killed!?" shouted a knight guard along the wall drawing the attention of Varn and Alders.

"What are they crazy! charging at nine Death stalkers?" lieutenant Alders exclaimed seeing the three squiers and the three formore spies cut their way through the lesser Grimm to intercept the Death stalkers before they reach the wall.

General Varn gave a grin before jumping over the wall himself much to Alders confusion. "General!? what are-"

"They got the right idea," general Varn replied to his second in command as he cut down four Beowolf's. "We can't just stay behind the wall those Death stalkers will just brake it down." General Varn paused to cut down a few more Grimm who decided to interrupt him. "Lieutenant I want you to take some of our forces and make sure our backs are clear of Grimm got it."

With a sigh the lieutenant replied. "Yes sir."

Lieutenant Alders then took a hundred fifty men off the rearlines who weren't doing much but guarding the back of the gates and took them to reinforce the otherside of the camp while the general lead a massed counter attack over the wall to aid the squiers in their crazy charge at the Death stalkers. The numbers of other Grimm were suddenly cut in half as those at the wall were annihilated by the mass charge.

But the general had to admit those kids had a lot of heart and courage.

Numia dodged side to side weaving her way through the forest of Ursa, Beowolfs and Boarbatusks twirling and spinning her scythe as she went, leaving behind a number of dismembered Grimm in her wake as her sisters ran beside her cutting their own paths of body parts while the three theson siblings followed closely behind.

They closed the distance and met the first of the Death stalkers as it screeched thrusting its left pincher at Numia. Numia easily dodged the attack jumping up and piercing the tip of her scythe into one of the Grimms red eyes. The Death stalker screeched in pain as it tried to knock the little human off it. Numia pulled her blade out and kicked off back flipping to safety as the Death stalker refocused on her and screeched again in anger.

"Bring it on," Numia challenged as she readied her scythe for another attack.

[Cut to wide overhead view showing the three sisters each taking on a single Deathstalker of their own with the theson siblings backing them up and the other knight guards and Faunus rangers blitzing through Grimm that were assaulting the wall and joined the attack on the preemptive attack on the Death stalkers general Varn leading the way]

 **[With Duke]**

[CRASH]... [SMASH]... [BANG] The metal gate started to buckle and the earthen wall around it crumbled little by little as the giant thing outside wanted in.

Duke cut a Beowolf down as Tealle used fire arrows to finish off the Grimm frozen that had been in place.

"That gate's not going to hold much longer," Lav said distressingly as he rejoined his friends.

[CRASH]... [BANG]

"Whats going on over here? having a party without me," Bron shouted as he approached the three.

"Bron. I figured you would find your way here," Duke exclaimed in part joy as the bull man Faunus arrived.

"Whud I miss," Bron asked as the gate finally gave exploding inwards as it and the surrounding earthen wall were turned into rubble by a giant alpha Deathstalker three times the size of the others of its kind giving a extra loud screech as if it had already won and then focused on the four Faunus standing like little insects before it.

"Ok big guy you want some."

"Not helping Bron," Duke said as he got a idea. "Ok everyone we need to keep this guy here or he'll tear through camp and hit our allies fighting the other Grimm. Lav, Bron back me up." As soon as he said that Lav pointed and yelled "Boarbatusks." the same ones that killed the gate guards came rolling passed the alpha Deathstalker and were quickly cut down by Tealle and her ice arrows which hit right between their armor plates causing ice shards to explode out from inside them turning the Boarbatusks into bloody ice porcupines. "Tealle," Duke yelled as she turned to him. "can you slow that big one down."

Taelle nodded and readied another ice arrow shooting it under alpha Deathstalker hitting three of it's legs, freezing them in place temporarily.

"Alright lets do this," Bron said as he ran a hundred feet back and turned bringing his hammer shield up and charged full speed at the alpha Deathstalker activating his semblance kinetic battery that allowed him to retain the kinetic force he built up from moving allowing him to smash through mostelly anything but in this case he was aiming at holding the oversized deathstalker in place.

Bron and his shield hammer crashed into the alpha Death stalkers head placed between it arms pushing it back a few feet. "Ok I got it," he yelled back.

As soon as Bron said that both Duke and Lav split up flanking the beast from both sides but the Deathstalker wasn't having any of that and smashed both its armored pinchers down creating a pressure wave that stunned the two Faunus and then it grabbed them one in each pincher.

"Ahh."

"Hurrgh"

Both men strained as their auras kept them from being cut in two but the giant Grimm then slammed them into the ground with great force depleting their auras.

Lav saw this with his semblance and yelled at Duke and they both jumped out of the way of the house sized pinchers and started attacking the Deathstalkers eight legs freezing them under even more ice just to make sure it stays in place and then the two ran back to Tealle.

"You think that'll hold it ?" Duke asked.

"No," Lav replied as the alpha Death stalker rocked its body side to side and screeched loweder using its stinger tail to attack the ice covering it's legs. It broke free and pushed Bron back a few meters as the Deathstalker fought against his constant forward momentum.

Duke shot fire grenades from his axe grenade launcher and Tealle shot fire arrows scorching the Grimms white carapace armor and eyes but doing little else but to anger the beast.

"Damn how tough is this thing," Duke protested.

Lav then got another of his visions. "Bron get back here now!"

"Huh what?"Bron said glancing back just as the Deathstalker did something different and reared backwards lifted it's body up allowing Bron to just move below it and fly into the group of waiting Grimm that were just outside the gate.

"Damn since when did Grimm get smart all of a sudden," Duke exclaimed as the giant Death stalker charged again but was pelted by dozens of Dust bullets and arrows from the approaching reinforcements lead by Lieutenant Alders.

The alpha Deathstalker again did something smart and used its own size to charge through the new enemies causing the humans and Faunus to scatter or be crushed underfoot and then turned around to face the scattered forces it had just trampled screeching in challenge.

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" Bron yelled as he smashed his way through the army of Grimm that he had flew into stopping just behind Tealle, Duke and Lav who had also jumped out of the Death stalkers rampage.

"You ok?" Lav asked.

"No we got more company," Bron said pointing to the second army of Grimm pouring into camp.

Caught between dozens of Beowolf,s, Boarbatusk,s and Ursa on one side and that giant Deathstalker on the other Lav, Bron, Duke, Tealle, lieutenant Alders and his forces, gathered in a circle and fought as best as they could with Lav calling out trouble spots and Duke blasting and slashing Grimm left and right. Bron smashed Ursa and Boarbatusks into past and Alders and his men fought bravely but little by little their numbers decreased killed off one by one buy the seemingly endless tied of Grimm.

On the other side of camp things were not looking any better as the squiers and their three atlantis allies felled three Deathstalkers only for the others to take their place along with more Grimm. Nick, Malinda and many others were injured in the continuing battle and even general Varn and the allied forces was having a hard time fighting off the remaining Death stalkers and the tide of other Grimm.

 **[With Duke]**

Things looked bleak as Lav was exhausted from overusing his semblance and Bron was to busy smashing the Grimm in front of him to see Duke being knocked to the ground by a Ursa. Tealle jumped in using her last arrow to stab the Ursa in the neck killing it only for a alpha Beowolf to come up behind her and slash four bloody claw marks cross her back. Duke screamed her name in fear and anger catching Tealle in his arms. Duke looked up to the Alpha Beowolf as it lifted it's claws to finish the job.

* * *

 **[With Solus, some Minutes Earlier]**

As he stood on a balcony overlooking the city Solus noted the capital of Xanadu had it's own charm and beauty even in the darkness of night as he looked out the window of the hotel building's top floor reserved for the party. The city wrapped in darkness but illuminated by lights that shined across the city like tiny stars of their own. Still Solus prefered the real stars, planet's and nebula which are far more visible in deep space and much closer.

"Your city is beautiful Count Barry," Solus commented as he sensed the count approached from behind.

"Oh thank you your highness?!" Barry replied a little perturbed by how Solus knew it was him without seeing. "Do you like the party."

Solus turned around looking in the room where a full upper class party was being held to welcome king Solus to their fair city and to encourage a better relationship but Solus was indifferent to those tactics.

There were all kinds of proper ladys and men in fancy and expensive clothes dancing to classical music played by a real band set along the wall opposite the exterior balcony Solus and the count were on.

"Its... new to my tastes. But enjoyable."

"I'm glad you are enjoying yourself. Despite my sons attempts to gain your favor," the count said noting all the other gifts prince Quin had sent Solus.

Across the room by the food and drink table stood newly appointed general Titus and his also newly promoted Captain Thara both standing guard over the underworked and overpaid pompous nobles.

"Aaah, I just made general and I get stuck with babysitting these people," Titus grumbled as he tasted some of the Finger food.

"Well it could be worse. The Grimm could here your whining and come running," captain Thara teased.

General Titus mused at the impossibility of that happening. "Well if that did happen we would at least have something fun to do."

[Cut to outside] As the people of the party danched and talked inside Russ approached the building from a side street and was stopped by two knight guards guarding the front door and were quickly killed by him and his semblance. Russ the former agent of the prince now took his opportunity to crown himself ruler of Xanadu by killing the current count and his annoying heir.

Across the city in a certain warehouse, the Grimm Seer started glowing infused with energy from its master and in a few moments opened a portal of swirling red and dark mist. Out from the portal came a tide of Grimm of all kinds. Beowolf,s, Boarbatusk,s, and Ursa. All of them bashed down the partition and spread throughout the dockyards and then into the city destroying and killing everything and everyone they find. Back at the portal four more Seer's appeared through the portal and joined the first enlarging the gateway to the realm of the Grimm allowing even more to pass through along with some Death stalkers.

On the other side of the portal in the realm of Grimm queen Salem watched and smiled wickedly as her army poured through the portal to destroy the nation of Xanadu which would be the first human kingdom to fall.

Back at the party Solus looked off into the distance as if seeing something no one else could.

"Something wrong your grace," prince Quinn asked who had joind the two rulers on the balcony.

Solus turned to the prince. "Oh. It's nothing really I just saw something interesting is all."

"Oh! a shooting star perhaps?" Quinn asked.

"Something like that,"Solus replied as he took a ship of his whine and turned to the doors just before Russ barged in and walked to the middle of the room where he saw the royals all gathered on the balcony. Titus and Thara both tried to stop him but with a single glance from Russ they were suddenly and completely frozen in place unable to move from his semblances paralyzing effect not even able to use their own abilities.

Prince Quinn and his father took notice of this only because Solus was already looking in that direction. The prince was furious that his own agent had interrupted such a important party.

"RUSS! what on Remnant are you doing here?," Quinn whisper shouted trying to keep his voice down as he walked forwards to meet Russ who had a amused smile going from ear to ear.

"What's so funny this is an important event what are ugh..."

Prince quinn feelt a stinging sensation and looked down to see a dagger imbedded in his belly and looked up to Russ in confusion and pain.

"Wha... why?!" the stabbed prince asked in a pained voice.

"Oh I thank you prince Quinn for taking me in and giving me a job... but." Russ pulled the knife out letting the prince stumble back holding his bloody wound as everyone in the room finally took notice and someone screamed when they saw the prince was stabbed and bleeding. "Im ambitious."

"SON!" count Barry shouted like any father would after seeing their child attacked and ran to Quinns side only to freeze in place from Russ's semblance.

"And now for you, your grace," Russ happly stated as he walked to the paralyzed count to finish him off like his son.

"Fa... father," quinn weakly said in concern of his parent but the pain of his wound kept him from doing anything.

Russ brought up his knife to slash at the counts neck but the blade stopped mere inches from the intended target.

"What? you!" Russ looked to his side surprised and angered that someone at this party had interrupted him.

"Yes me," Solus said casually like none of this surprised him. "Let me ask you whoever you are what do you think your doing?"

"Hah. You got some brass balls mister king," Russ said as he struggled to free his arm from Solus iron grip but found he could not. "But to answer your question... I just found better employment. That's all."

Soluses eyes lit up with great interest at that info. "And who pray tell if said new employer."

"Ha ha ha. The... queen... of... the... Grimm, " Russ said slowly trying to be intimidating but it didn't do a thing to Solus. "And once her army is done with this city I'll become the new ruler of Xanadu and the remaining people."

Russ then dropped his dagger catching it in his other hand and used his semblance to freeze Solus in place like the eyes of Medusa and swung only for his hand to once again be caught mid swing.

"What? what the?!," Russ panicked when he saw the giant clawed hand holding onto his arm. He turned his head back to see nothing but the the giant reptilian hand coming out of thin air but the air started to shimmer and revealed a giant bipedal lizard man standing over him.

Russ stammered in surprise and shock as the Zerg Phantom opened its jaws and bit down on his skull. Many in the room gasp and others fainted as the mans head was crushed and his body went limp the bloody knife clattering on the marble floor.

The effect of the traitors semblance ended with his life and Titus and Thara and rushed to their prince and counts side as everyone in the room regained some of their composer as they realised that the prince lay dying.

Solus walked to the counts side as the man held his only child in his arms who was now bleeding out and looking all the more pale. "SOMEONE CALL A DOCTOR SOMEONE ANYONE!," the count shouted at the top of his lungs.

Solus watched the expressions of the dying prince and his father along with that of Titus and Thara who both looked like kicking themselves for letting this happen one their watch. The expressions of everyone else in the room wavered between fear and concern and few were even paying attention to the still visible Phantom just standing there.

Solus saw that even though the prince was somewhat prideful he did care for his country and people wanting the best for them and they in turn loved him. Even the lower classes deeply respected the prince for his policies regarding employment and education and even his efforts to keep the number of Grimm related deaths low low. Quinns efforts to expand further north wasn't just to line his pockets but was a necessity. Xanadu had large amounts of land for farming and the mines in the north but those mines were starting to run out of ore and the rest of the nations land was pour in other resources such as iron, copper, wood and stone and other needed resources which forced the kingdom to be prudent, efficient and careful in how they use their limited resources.

Solus had gained this clear view of Xanadu and Quinn from his three spies and his own asking around for the past few days.

Solus was indifferent to the dying prince but he then remembered something his empress told him when she gave him his orders concerning his mission to Remnant.

{Solus so long as you keep my orders to keep interaction with the people of Remanent outside the western dragon continent and the Zerg to a minimum what you do is your call. I don't want you or any of my other generals and Brood queens being mindless drones who can't think or act for themselves. So just do what you feel is right given the situation. You won't always have me around to tell you what to do so develop that independent side of your selfe you'll be all the stronger for it}

Making up his mind Solus sent a psionic order to the forces he had moved to both the allied forces in the north and the capital following his empresses examply of always being prepared.

* * *

 **[With Duke]**

Duke clenched his teeth and held Tealle as he roared in pure defiance of the Grimm.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!"

His cry's were heard but by heaven or by hell was the question.

Suddenly all over the battlefield the ground shook like a magnitude 5.0 earthquake hit and everyone even the Grimm were shaken off their feet by the vibrations beneath their feet. A instant later six massive Nydus worms burst out from the ground around the allied forces camp and roared so loudly it forced even the Grimm to stagger in surprise of their appearance. Each worm extended six spikes from their bodies and dropped back down with a securing thud anchoring themselves in place as they leaned forward and expelling a wave of living blades and claws that was a Zerg rush.

Zerglings by the hundreds rushed out of the Nydus worms and started tackling and ripping into the Grimm like tissue paper, cleaving arms and severing legs and slashing through the weak white plating the Grimm call armor and before too long all of the Grimm turned their away from the Humans and Faunus devoting all their attention to these new creatures attacking them.

Hydralisk then joined the battle with their five heads shooting a rapid barrage of armor piercing spines that made Ursa into pincushions with Roach's spraying their acid on Boarbatusk turning them into a fine side's of pork that melted outside of your mouth. The Ultralisk roard as loudly a the Nydus worms as they unborrowed in front of the Death stalkers screeched in anger of the new enemies interference but the Ultralisk just roared back and cleaved the oversized bugs in half with their kaiser blades monomolecular edges cutting through the Death stalkers armor slicing off their limbs and splitting them open like a freshly cooked crab only with more gore and bloody splatter.

The remaining alpha Deathstalker screeched as loudly as it could as it charged at a Ultralisk and started stabbing it with its tail stinger the sharp point doing little but chip pieces of armor off and anger the Zerg super beast. The Ultralisk turned and reared up and bringing down it's front multi tone feet on the alpha Death stalker's pinchers crushing them and pinning the Deathstalker to the ground.

The Ultralisk then shot its two lower kaiser blades/spins guns impaling the Death stalkers body with a few spines shot at low velocity pining it to the ground like a bug pinned to exhibit wall. The Ultralisk then used it's main Kaiser blades pulling its victim up and tearing off the front pinchers that were stuck under the Ultralisk heavy armored front feet and with a subtle crunching the Ultralisk cut the alpha Deathstalker in half like paper between scissors. The alpha Deathstalker screeched weakly as it started dissolving into nothing and the Ultralisk cocking its head growling in annoyance as if it wanted to taste the flesh of its kill.

All of the Humans and Faunus stood their transfixed by the slaughter of Grimm by other and somehow more terrifying monsters, their mouths a gap even as the Zerg flooded around them replacing the Grimm as the Dark beasts were pushed back and ripped apart by the superior biology of the 1st gen Zerg.

Duke remained kneeled with the wounded Tealle in his arms watching the reversal of their fortune and smiling a little as these new monsters ripped the Grimm apart like they were toys. And It dawned on Duke that these new monsters were ignoring all the humans and Faunus as they rampaged about culling the Grimm's numbers until only a few scattered remnant's remained who quickly retreated or tried as they were out paced by the smaller and much faster monsters and tore apart.

"What the hell are those things?!" Bron asked something no one knew as he Lav and lieutenant Alders came up to Duke each with a look of concern for Tealle.

"Is she?" Lav asked as his eyes were glued to Tealle.

"Injured but alive," Duke replied deeply concerned for the women in his arms.

"Heal," a strange echoing voice called out.

Everyone turned to see a new monster looking at them, standing on six pointed insect legs and with a centar like body and a armored upper humanoid body with two arms with four figures and two bladed wings and a armored crest on the head.

"What! is that and... did it just talk?," Alders exclaimed.

"Yes I can talk. Do you want me to heal your wounded," the Zerg queen replied.

Everyone shared a confused look between each other for a moment and the zerg queen understood their confusion.

"I serve the King of Atlantis. We are allies. Now do you want me to heal your wounded," the Zerg queen replied again a little annoyed this time.

"Ah! um yes, can you heal her," Duke asked realizing this new monsters seemed to be allies.

"Show me her wounds," the zerg queen said.

Duke did as asked despite Lavs protests and rolled Tealle over and lifted her shirt and cloak revealing the deep bloody slash marks along her back. The Zerg queen unfolded and extended two tentacles from her lower back and used her transfusion ability spraying some green goo onto Tealle's wounds. The goo bubbled and spread as it seeped into her open wounds and steamed a little. Duke held Tealle tight as she winced from the pain of her wounds being sanitized and soon after the wounds sealed up as if magic.

Tealles breathing became easier and she open her eyes. "Ah... uh Duke?!."

"I'm here Tealle everything will be fine," Duke said breathing realizing he had been holding his breath.

"Do you need more wounded healed?" the zerg queen asked again as Lieutenant Alders hesitated a moment still surprised at the incredible display of this monsters healing abilities.

"Umm yes... please."

Across the battlefield general Varn stared in astonishment at the many Zerg queens as they started healing the wounded and those near death whose wounds would have been fatal other wise recovered. "I think we need to have a little talk again girls," he said to Numia, Rain and Yuna as them and the other squiers stood behind him.

Numia then explained that these creatures are called Zerg and are controlled by the royal family of Atlantis. And some more bull shit to keep the humans from learning the truth, at least for now.

 **[With Solus]**

Quinn coughed and started breathing normally as the Zerg queen backed up a little from healing him with her transfusion which Solus had his evolution masters adapt to be able to work on both Zerg and non Zerg biology.

The green goo the queens used was a liquid element filled with a bio accelerant that speeds up the healing process and stem cells that have no DNA and multiply rapidly once they take in the DNA of the targeted lifeform becoming apart of their body and sealing the wounds and injuries quickly. There was even a few anti-poison elements in there.

"Thank you King Solus I...I don't understand how you control these... Zerg but I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Count Barry said bowing in gratitude his eyes loosing water as he cried in joy.

Solus was glad he had take precautions to move his Zerg forces for such a outcome despite not knowing what or if something would occur. It must be like with empress Ellen and how and why shes always making plans and counter plans for unknown possibilities and threats like when Azrumath captured her. If Izsha and the other brood queens didn't existe things would have gone badly back then.

"Its not over yet," Solus said as he grabbed his sword from the hands of a Phantom who had retrieved it from the guard room where his weapons were kept for the party.

The distant screams of people and roars of Grimm were heard from outside as captain Thara rushed to the window where the Overlord which had brought the zerg queen was floating above just out of sight. "By the gods the Grimm are attacking the city."

"General Titus, captain Thara, my Zerg will guard this building, but we must go and eliminate the Grimm in the city." Both Titus and Thara agreed and left with Solus as the Zerg Queen and Phantom remained behind.

As they ran through the building and out the front of the highrise hotel the party was held in the noise of Grimm rampaging throughout the city became louder.

"Sir the troops at Rasenden should already be aware of the situation and be sending troops into the city to clear out the Grimm. I suggest meeting up with them and clearing out the city block by block," said Thara as a pack of Beowolf's charged at them from down the street.

Thara unsheathed her sword and activated her semblance, charging forth her blade glowing red hot and in a series of expert dodges and slashes captain Thara cut the Grimm down by herself leaving cartarised burning red cuts on the fallen Grimm as they quickly dissolved away.

"That's a sound strategy captain but you won't be able to save the people near where the Grimm are coming from."

Bothe Titus and Thara looked at Solus incredulously. "You know where and how the Grimm got in the City?"Thara asked.

"Yes and my Zerg are arriving even as I speak."

As Solus said that they looked up into the air where dozens of Overlords were descending into the city silhouetted by the white scattered moon in the night sky. "Uh what are those things? more of your Zerg," Titus asked watching the Overlords as they descended into the city near the dockyards.

"Yes. Their transports dropping more Zerg into the parts of the City that your forces won't get to in time. They'll quarantine the Grimm and block them from spreading further."

Titus wanted to ask King Solus why exactly he had a force of these... Zerg waiting near the city but such questions can wait for later.

As they talked a dozen giant black feathers flew at them from above but Solus saw it coming and warned Titus and Thara and they all evaded the sky attack. They looked up to see a giant Nevermore swooping out of the sky screeching as it circled around for another attack.

"I got this one," Titus said as he carefully watched the Nevermores movements and just as the Grimm on high flew over head to use it's feather attack again Titus used his semblance gesturing at the giant flying Grimm approaching them. The Nevermores wings slumped down and quickly got heavier as it dropped out of the sky, crashing into the street and slid to a stop as it smashed a few carriages and street lamps. The Nevermore screeched as it struggled to stand back up but its body was heavier then it should be. General Titus then used both hands to gesture like he was holding something and lifted up as the Nevermore was launched into the air by planetary rotation (That's what happens when gravity goes away) and then came smashing back down with enough force to shatter all of its bones leaving a stain on the street.

Solus smiled as the Nevermore dissolved drawing his sword. "Nice work general, now let's get going."

Everyone nodded and ran towards the Docks as more Nevermores showed up but were dealt with by four Zerg Wyverns. The great beasts of the sky battled it out high above Aranna, the Nevermores attacking with their beak's, talons and bladed feathers while the Zerg Wyverns attacked with their own fangs, razor sharp talons and micro Glaives. The Grimm rapidly lost ground (or sky) and started falling out of the air. Their throats and organs toar out and melted by the superior bio weapons of the Zerg.

On the ground the few hundred knight guards left to guard Aranna ran in a hurried march into the city intercepting and fighting any Grimm they encounter. The officers directing the troops as they sweapped through the city block by block and street by street doing what they always feared but trained for and hoped would never happen, defend their city from the Grimm.

Fights large and small broke out all over the city but the closer to the ship docks the knight guards got the more Grimm there were (Blockaded by the Zerg) and then the other monsters showed up looking very different from Grimm but also looking even more dangerous. One kind looked like a giant multi-headed snake with triple scythe clawed praying mantis shaped arms shooting spined from its horns, and then there were the smaller and more numerous dog like ones with bladed arms on their back and were fast as hell.

These new monsters luckley didn't attack the knight guards but seemed to be helping them fight off the Grimm, but there were a few altercations when a knight guard mistakenly attacked a Zerg, but the Zerg just snarled at the hasty fool and ran or slithered on their way to fight more Grimm and eventually the two sides started to at the very least work together to push back the tide of Grimm.

While the Zerg and knight guard forces pushed back the Grimm Mell and his sister were in a pickle as a few Beowolf's had broken into their boat house/airship and started breaking things as the siblings hide in the lower decks. The floorboard's creaking as the Grimm walked across them.

"Damn, Fuck, Shit, why, how? are Grimm here?" Vio mumbled under her breath.

"I don't know how or why but as long as we stay calm they won't find us down here. Grimm aren't known for opening doors," Mell whispered but as he did he leaned a little to much on a box it slid making enough noise for the Grimm above to hear.

The ear of a Beowolf twitched and it looked down and listened and started sensing a growing fear of someone down there. The Beowolf's then started growling and madly clawing at the floor ripping it up and then dropping down into the cargo hold where they saw the two humans huddled in a corner with some of their own wears on hand.

Mell shot one Beowolf with a shotgun axe and the recoil sent him flying back into a create dazing him.

"Aaah did I get him," Melle asked winded and sour from hitting the create.

"Yeah but there s still more of them," Vio replied as the remaining other Beowolfs charged at her and her brother.

But just as the Grimm got close thay were tackled from behind by Zerglings who ripped them apart.

Mell and Vio stood there bewildered buy the appearance of another kind of monster that just saved them but the two were now wondering what these new beasts would do, but to their growing confusion the Zerglings just trilled at them and left jumping back out of the hole in the floor or roof.

Both Mell and Vio were left to stew over what just happened and be unknowingly grateful they had their airship/boat house at the far end of the docks and far away from a certain warehouse.

Solus, Titus and Thara all ran through the city killing Grimm as they went.

Captain Thara sliced through Grimm of all kinds with her heated sword and burned them with her heat infusion semblance while Titus used his semblance to launch the Grimm into the air or hold them down by the weight of their own bodies multiplied by his gravity control semblance as he sliced their heads off. And Solus hacked and slashed through the Grimm like a katana through tatami mat one shooting any Beowolfs, Ursa or Boarbatusk that had the misfortune to crossing him and even splitting a Death stalkers head in two in one hit of his oversized sword.

"It's just up a head," Solus yelled as he slashed through a Alpha Beowolf and more of it's kind.

"The portal you talked about?" Thara shot back as she dodged a swing from a Ursa and placed her hand on it's back sending heat energy into its body and microwaving the beast from the inside out like a potato cooked in aluminum foil.

Titus grunted as the three of them ran up to the warehouse where the Grimm seem to be coming from. "It would explain how the Grimm got into the city."

 **[With Salem]**

Salem scowled and clenched her fist frustrated by the sudden arrival and interference by these other monsters that were now tearing through her Grimm like Grimm through humans but that wasn't right, not right at all.

"What are these new beasts?" Salem mused to herself as she watched through the eyes of Seers she had sent into the city so she could watch it fall but that was looking unlikely now. But still the attacks across the rest of Xanadu were going smoothly.

Salem watched as the humans and these new creatures worked together to cleanse the city of Grimm, quickly reducing the Grimms numbers to a fraction of the beginning invasion force in just a short amount of time.

Salem then noticed that three humans had reached the warehouse housing the portal. Salem closed her eyes and sighed, and then smiled. "Mmm. Well at least I should have some fun for my selfe," Salem mused to herself as she walked through the portal wanting to test her enhanced powers granted to her by Amon.

 **[With Solus]**

"So that's it," Titus asked staring at the swirling portal.

"Yeah," Solus confirmed.

"To think the Grimm are capable of this," Thara stated.

The trio looked at the swirling red and pink portal inside the warehouse as a shadow formed within it and Salem appeared before them.

"Congratulations on reaching this far humans. I am the queen of the Grimm. Salem. Would you be so kind and entertain me," Salem stated with a ice cold smile as she studied the three humans and made sure to remember their semblances but the third one had yet to use his.

The two humans who were from Xanadu's knight guards were awestruck at the sudden appearance of the ruler of the Grimm but the one in the middle 'Solus' who was from Russes report the king from another human kingdom and from the information the Seers provided must also the one controlling the new monsters helping the humans. "Tell me king Solus are you the one control these creatures?"

Solus eyed the self appointed queen of the Grimm. "Sorry miss queeney but that's need to know information. And you don't need to know."

Salem had no patience for impertinence and disrespect and she spread her arms out wide. Calling forth a storm cloud high above of black whispy smoke that looked like the dark mist all Grimm dissolve into when killed. Some of it flew down to Salem orbiting her and some of that formed into a array of black swords around her with white handles and red markings much like Grimm. Salem then lowered both arms. "Then die." As the cold words escaped Salem mouth the swords flew forwards.

Solus, Thara, and Titus jumped out of the way just in time as the swords impaled the ground where they stood a split second ago and then the swords dissolved much like Grimm when their killed and reformed into four alpha Beowolves two each went after Thara and Titus splitting them up from Solus.

Salem then formed two more swords from the swirling black mist around her and then the mist formed into a armored dress suit on her with wings like a Nevermore and Salem charged Solus swinging her blades with such speed and precision it forced Solus back and on the defensive.

"Regardless of how you control the beasts, I will eliminate any and all hindrances to my masters plans," Salem said in a calm murderous voice as she was a blur hacking and slashing at Solus who just barley blocked, dodged and parried the attacks. The speed of each strike was just as fast as a brood queen with the super speed granted by psi-armor level 1. This greatly surprised Solus that someone other than Zerg or Protoss had such speed and power.

"Your master eh, and who's that?" Solus replied as he continued to block, parry and evade the Grimm queens attacks. If it wasn't for all the improvement's to his body over the three brood queens versions he would have had to use his own psi-armor but his current abilities were just sufficient enough to keep up with this queen of the Grimm.

"Trying to get information out of me," Salem said flatly in a bored but hostile tone as she combined bothe her swords into one large one and swung horizontally sending Solus through the air and into a store front window. Salem then raised a arm up and more of the black mist descended from the swirling storm cloud above and formed into four dozen Ursa and Beowolfs. She then pointed to the store and the newly created Grimm charged at their prey.

Solus stood up and saw lots of Grimm heading at him from outside, he took a seat hoping up on the front counter and brought out his twin handguns. "Hah this parties way better than that other one," Solus quipped as he started shooting unleashing a rapid staccato of gunfire upon the approaching Grimm horde.

The rapid firing of semi-auto pistols rang out from inside the store as a pile of Grimm formed up outside the store faster than they could dissolve away and eventually their numbers dropped quickly leaving Salem on her own again. Solus smiled with two smoking pistols aimed at the Grimm queen as he exited the stores front door just as Titus and Thara both rejoined him.

"Glad your alive," Titus quipped as all three then faced Salem again.

"She's powerful but what kind of semblance is that. Can she create Grimm and weapons from that mist?" Thara said giving a question.

Solus didn't reply but just fired unleashing another barrage of gunfire for ten seconds. As Solus ended his shooting spree he and the others saw to their surprise the Queen of the Grimm was unaffected, protected by her black wings and red aura that seemed far stronger the normal. "Hmph," Salem was unimpressed and had a giant malicious grin.

"Uh? but... how even a aura should have been drained by a attack like that," Thara stated as Salem just stood there with her aura shimmering across her body and unfolded her raven black wings.

Solus decided to switch gears and use his psi-level 1 and his body glowed and all his physical abilities were doubled but he didn't grow any Faunus ears or tail because his body was a perfected form of the bodies Numia and her sisters used. The Zerg evolution masters had conducted many experiments using cloned bodies of Humans and Faunus that were used to understand the morphing ability the hybrid Zerg Human and Faunus bodies had which Numia and her sisters had and eventually discovered the reason and trigger for it and over the last few months the evolution masters spent their time perfecting and weaponizing it to a degree the Zerg prefurred. The body Solus was using would go through a transformation but only at psi-armor level 2 or higher.

Solus switched to his sword again and dashed slashed at Salem their blades creating sparks as their swords clashed.

"Is this your semblance?" Salem asked only to get a smile from Solus before he zipped to her left side in an instant. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the two locked eyes and made their next move. Salem evaded jumping away and landed on her feet and jumped away again as Solus dropped down splitting the stone pavement with a helm splitter.

Solus pulled his blade out from the ground and dashed forward pressing his attack but Salem blocked his flurry of blows who's increased speed and power was now forcing Salem on to the defensive but as she was forced back she still had that arrogante grin even as their swords erupted into a shower of sparks every time they clashed.

Both Salem and Solus were grinning even as they attempted to kill each other, both of them were enjoying the struggle of life and death. Nether one knowing for how long this battle would go on for.

Solus attacked with a flurry of vertical, horizontal and diagonal strikes while Salem dodged and counter attacked with a jump strike that sent the blocking Solus back four meters. Salem went back on the offensive forming a dozen daggers from the dark mist and shot them at Solus like rapid firing knives.

Solus swung his oversized sword left, right, left right, deflecting the flying daggers as he ran around Salem shooting back with one of his twin pistols. Salem continued her barrage at Solus for a few moments while using her own summoned Grimm blades to block the gunfire as the two exchanged ranged blows.

But at that moment Solus ran out of ammo and Salem took the opportunity to attack. Solus jumped forwards inverting himself and tucking in his arms as Salem's blade came with in a few inches of his face.

Solus quickly reloaded as he landed behind Salem and continued shooting. Salem dashed ten meters away and took to the air with her black wings and sent a barrage of bladed feathers at Solus encircling him in a wall of dark feathers. Solus switched to his sword and used a 360, degree spinning attack cutting the black feathers apart as Salem dived at him. The force of their clashing blades sent the feather fragments flying away.

The two fighters grinned at each other as they continued their battle moving at superhuman speeds. Their movements were nothing but blur's to Titus and Thara who were now relegated to mere spectators watching from the sidelines as the two continued their high speed battle for the next ten minutes. The fight spread all around the area some time resulting in the damage or destruction of cargo creates and equipment and the ground itself was shattered by their powerful attacks, splitting stone and cleaving steel.

Salem sent a rapid series of sword thrusts at Solus who deftly dodged left, right, left, right, left, right, back, back.

Solus countered with a uppercut slash along the ground and Salem backflipped out of the way. Solus switched from one attack to another as he jumped attacking with another helmsplitter attack. Salem dodged once again as the heavy blade came down clipped her arm, her aura held but was nearing its limits even after being enhanced by Amon and his other servent Samir.

Salem was growing tiered of this deadlock and noticed the growing number of the creatures King Solus commanded that were gathering in the area know doubt because the Grimm in the city had been pushed back or wiped out. Salem decided to cut her losses and retreated back to the portal as she continued to block the continued attacks from Solus.

Solus jumped away as a wall of flying blades struck down between him and Salem. "I grow tired of this. You may have won this day but next time I'll use my full powers," Salem warned as she flew over to the portal on her black wings but was forced to her knees by Tituses semblance.

"Your not going anywhere," Yelled Titus as Thara ran at Salem to attack but the Grimm queen just smiled as she formed a gigantic Grimm from the swirling mist cloud above and it fell between her and Thara almost crushing the captain, the air over pressure sending the captain flying back a ways.

"Gah what the hell!" Thara exclaimed as she rolled over and her eyes went wide as she saw the new Grimm from her place on the ground. What she saw mere meters away was a Dragon a giant Grimm Dragon raise it's head and growl, it's eyes and the red markings on its body glowing as it looked at Thara. "Ah shit... " Thara exclaimed as she quickly got to her feet and ran just in time to avoid the snapping jaws of the Grimm Dragon.

Salem made her escape and the portal closed behind her but she continued to watch with the one Seer she left behind.

"This is not good," Titus said as the Dragon lifted its head and roared a ear piercing battle cry.

 _ **"ROOOOAAARRR."**_

"General Titus, Captain Thara both you need to get out of here I'll handle this thing," Solus shouted as the three regrouped.

The Dragon reared up and roared before flapping it's wings and taking to the air.

"Uhh general?"

"We have to stop it." general Titus yelled as he gestured to the Dragon and used his semblance but the previous battles had drained him and the great beast was able to get out of the generals gravity semblance range and fly off.

"Ahh damnite," Titus exclaimed as he became winded and placed both hands on his knees catching his breath.

"Like I said both you sit back I'll finish the Dragon off," Solus said as he ordered Wyverns to attack the Grimm Dragon.

In the air-space high above the city of Aranna the Dragon of Grimm and four Zerg Wyverns did battle as glaives impacted the thick armored scales of the Dragon along with psi-armored enhanced spines. But did little damage as the Dragon seemed to shrug off the attacks some how and regenerate as fast as the damage could be inflicted.

The Dragon dive bombed and swooped down and over the city the Wyverns following all the while continuing to attack it. As the Dragon ascended up into the sky flapping its wings it started gathering energy in its mouth, the intensity and heat of the light growing with every moment and once the beast had reached the apex of its ascent it turned around and aimed at the Wyverns firing a massive beam of unnatural fire overwhelmed their psi-armor and vaporising the Wyverns as the energy beam continued down and struck the city creating a massive explosion that leveled a city block and cause many fires across the area as a wave of fire spread out from the impact zone.

Solus, Titus and Thara were in awe surprise's of the power of this Dragon compared to the other Grimm.

"Well... that's not good," Solus stated noting that the attack the Grimm Dragon used was similar to Dust weapons which as Vo'zen and the other evolution masters had confirmed were psionic effects only based on the elements like Dust, the psionic power of which can damage or negate other psi-based defences like the Wyverns psi-armor far more effectively than none psi-attacks.

As Solus mused at this little detail that allowed the Grimm dragon to destroy the Wyvern's the Dragon started charging up another attack as it flapped it's wings hovering over the city like the harbinger of doom it was.

"Hah... oh well guess I can't hold back," Solus mused as he started infusing psionic power into his body even more and reached psi-level 2. The transformation was instant and in a flash of light his body morphed into its new combat form catching the attention of Titus and Thara. The two humans gasped in surprise as they saw Soluses transformed devil state.

From his feet to his head Soluses body was now covered in a armored jet black skin that had thicker red, blue and silver armored plating covering him like a natural suit of armor that had a red coat like covering over his torso's back and sides. His face was also changed having lossed his nose and with a dark scaled flat face that looked like a type of armor its self with the eyes now red crystals or covered by red crystals. The rest of the head also had other changes and was well defended by the armored helm shaped plating with two large white horns jutting out of the sides which sharply angled forwards and downwards.

Solus walked forward with purpose as he unfolded his new wings that were formed from his coat. His clothes being made from Zerg cells became apart of his transformation the boots becoming the black armoring and claws of his feet and the coat becoming his wings and the vest becoming his torso armor.

Solus could not help but think the transformation that Numia and her sisters human bodies went trough could be used in a more practical way and Solus was also reminded of the devil trigger transformation in that one game series Devil May Cry Ellen had added to the long list of games she had kept in the Zerg VR world memory banks. Solus and all the other more intelligent Zerg had at one point or another played all these games in the VR world and Solus himself found the monsters and beings of that particular game series to be... fascinating.

Solus kneeled down and unfolded his wings as they stretched twelve feet in both directions and he jumped fifty meters high and started flapping his wings as he ascended upwards his devil like body glowing with the power of his soul, something he and the Zerg didn't really believe in, but resent discoveries on Remnant had changed that thinking.

Devil trigger Solus flew faster and faster as he gained speed flying like a red comet towards the Grimm Dragon who took notice of the approaching enemy. The Dragon turned it's attack apone Solus and the flying devil flew up and away like a rising missile just as the Dragon fired it's beam of inferno fire but it's target wa far faster then it was and the shot went wide and hit the ocean creating a massive steam explosion a mile off the coast.

Solus resumed his approach and switched to his hand guns which were now glowing with energy. Solus unleashed a torrent of gunfire upon the dragon as he orbited it, the Dust rounds being overcharged by his own psionic power fired far larger explosive shots. The rapid fire barrage impacted the Grimm Dragons body, neck and head.

Solus flew around the beast continuing to barrage it with his hand guns in a torrent of gunfire that seemed to have no end as even Solus himself didn't know where his ammo was coming from but decided to not think too much about it. The Grimm Dragon started hurting from the constant barrage as it's armored scales were melted away under the withering attack. The Grimm Dragon swooped away trying to escape the endless gun fire but no matter how it moved it could not escape. Solus chased after the Dragon continuing to shoot it in weak spots, the much more powerful psionic power of his attacks overwhelming the Dragons regeneration and quickly chipping away at its health.

The Dragon flew over the city in a circling and criss crossing pattern rising up high and swooping down low in a desperate attempt to escape its harasser as Solus relentlessly attack the Grimm. The Dragon then decided to go on the attack and started charging up its dust infused inferno breath attack and once fully charged it turned around aiming it's attack at Solus. Solus wanting to avoid damaging the city further flew upwards with great speed but the Dragon didn't fire just yet. Solus noticed this and took a gamble with his next move as he flew directly over the Dragon and dive bombed it switching to his sword.

Solus put all of his power into his sword and used his wings to control his angle of decent making sure he was on course as he fell at the Dragon and in the next instant the Dragon fired.

A beam of fire shot out from the Dragons fanged mouth and struck Solus. Everyone in the city saw the flash of light and looked up, and all of the battle weary knight guards, all of the Zerg an all of the people who had taken to the streets in a desperate attempt to escape the Grimm, saw the Dragons blazing inferno beam shoot up and hit something and were agasp as the beam of fire was cut in two by something falling like a crimson comet until it hit the dragon and passed through it.

Solus hit the ground like a meteor shattering the ground on impact and reverting to his normal human form. Solus breathed heavily from his exertion, using psi-armor level 2 was still a great drain on his body but it got the job done. Looking up Solus grinned as the Grimm Dragon fell out of the air splitting into two halves that quickly dissolved into the black mist and then despired.

"You may have stopped my attack on Aranna but the rest of Xanadu isn't so lucky," Salem stated in a mildly irritated tone from the Seer floating behind Solus.

"Hah... till next we meet Salem," Solus replied as he pulled out his hand gun and blasted the Seer into tiny gooey chunks.

* * *

After the attack on both the Allied forces and Xanadu's capital of Aranna it was discovered that Grimm had also attacked towns all over Xanadu and even though the knight guards fought bravely many still died, greatly reducing the population of the nation by 2/3ds. For all intents and purposes Xanadu had lost most if not all of its military power and workforce in the nation wide attack. But the nation of Atlantis was gracious in its aide to the hurting people of Xanadu but for a price. Solus had the people of Xanadu move their entire population to Atlantis and abandon their lands. At first it didn't sit well with most people but many people changed their minds after a few members of the council visited Atlantis, including Prince Quinn, general Titus and other knight guards as escorts.

The reports of how prosperous the kingdom of Atlantis was and how the Zerg controlled by the royal family protected them creating a zero Grimm zone around the kingdom made many people change their minds. Many of whom who were still picking up the pieces after the devastating Grimm attack wanted a safe place to live and count Barry his son and the Xanadu council members wanting the same decided to move what remained of their people to Atlantis bringing the history of the nation of Xanadu to a end but not its people.

In the following years Atlantis remained an isolated nation but Mell and his sister now with Lav in tow (who had developed his relationship with the now of age Vio) kept a trading business that was the only link between the self isolated Atlantis the Faunus village of Alcon and the rest of the world. The refugee people of Xanadu took quickly to the new lands of Atlantis but they noticed that the people were... somewhat odd in their behavior, and the land seemed as if only recently worked by human hands. But despite these odd things the people settled in to their new Grimm free home.

The Faunus of Alcon village kept their alliance with the count and people of the now defunct Xanadu and also formed a relationship with Atlantis for the mining rights to their Dust mine but only under one condition, that the people of Alcon keep the existence if Atlantis a secret from any other nation or people they may trade and deal with.

Time moved on and many generations came and went as the bloodlines of the people of Xanadu mixed with those of Atlantis who were created by the Zerg and Solus and his Brood continued their experiment's until a creating two young boys were born from the royal family of Atlantis who were the culmination of all the work and research thus far and... there... names... were...

* * *

 **Chapter End.**

* * *

 **A Sneak peek of the future to come**

 **Location.** Installation 00 Lesser Ark-Control room.

The twin monitors, 000 Infinite Vigil and 001 Graceful Sentiment floated in the control chamber of the ark observing all the battles and wars that had erupted across the galaxy. The great war between the Overminds Swarm and the Protoss empire. The genocidal war of the Covenant against the Humans of Earth and their colonies. And the conflict between the two Zerg Swarms and their differing allies. But now time marches on to another world. A simpler one yes but a world that has still seen its far share of war and suffering.

Remnant.

The Monitors of the Lesser ark had once a long time ago used that planet as a development and testing ground for the weapon meant to save the galaxy in the coming war with the beings of the immaterium, who would see every lifeform and sentient being in the galaxy in-slaved to their master and his will. But now the two monitors once again turn their ever watchful eyes scattered across the galaxy to this world. It first started when the people of Remnant attempted to leave the planet or rather send a unmanned probe into orbit, but Dust a altered form of khaydarin crystal with unique abilities depending on what type it is, has one flaw, it can only function in proximity to Khaydarin crystal's that empower it. The crust of the planet of Remnant itself is lined with massive amounts of the psionically active crystal just like the homeworld of the Protoss Aiur. When any Dust leaves the range of the Khaydarin matrix Dust looses its powers.

After the people of Remnants failed attempt to go into space the Monitors of installation 00 took notice and kept a eye on them. And in so doing learned of the presence of a group Zerg from Ellen's swarm. The Monitors took interest and kept a eye on the Zerg and their isolated civilization. Time marched on and the day of a sports event called the Vytal festival a major part of the which was the combat tournament in which students from the numerous Huntsmen academies competed against each other began like it had so many times before. But this one would be different from the others as three events disrupted the normal jovial environment of the games. The first was the injuring of one student by another, the second was the death of another student who turned out to be a robot wen her body was torn to pieces but her own sword control wires which were manipulated by the polarity semblance of the other student.

After this tragedy someone hacked the speakers and started speaking putting words of doubt about the academies and military. Things only got worse from there when Grimm sensing the peoples growing fear and confusion attacked the floating stage for the tournament Amity colosseum and later Beacon academy itself was invaded by a Faunus rights group called the white fang. In the chaos of the events many of the brave students of not only Beacon but of the other three huntsmen academies fought against the Grimm and White fang.

"Hmm that's strange," Infinite Vigil said noticing something odd from the sensor readings of one of the stealth sentinels observing the events on Remnant.

"Huh... Oh? I see what you mean. The psionic power values of one person is much higher then the others. But it wasn't that high a few moments ago?"

Infinite Vigil tracked the high psionic power level to a sublevel of Beacon tower where a cloaked sentinel was investigating on sight.

Another hard-light holo screen blinked on and showed the inside of a cross shaped hallway with two large human sized tubes at the end and two people one a woman and the other a older man fighting quit fiercely.

"Detecting recorded soul signature."Infinite Vigil reported. "Its Ozpin... but im getting a second resonate signature with the woman he's battling."

"Did he give his powers to someone else?" Graceful Sentiment asked.

"Must have. But why is someone who holds his own powers fighting Ozpin," Infinite Vigil wondered as it floated up and down bit in thought.

In those moments the battle between the two was decided as the current host of Ozpin fell.

"I still think it was a little cruel to keep Ozpin alive. Mortal minds were not meant for the long isolation immortality brings" Graceful Sentiment mused regretfully.

"It was necessary to create a understanding of a isolated soul not connected to the immaterium." Infinite Vigil stated defending the reason.

"I wonder about that," Graceful Sentiment replied.

The cloaked sentinel followed behind the woman who defeated Ozpin who made her way up to the top of the tower as a Grimm dragon landed on it. Shortly after two of the students from Beacon arrived at the top of the tower and started battling the woman who was named Cinder Fall by the two students who now started fighting her and in the ensuing battle the Grimm Dragon demolished the upper top of the tower. Both of the students had a odd soul wavelength that the two Monitors couldn't understand the purpose or nature of.

"Do you think we should interfere?" Graceful Sentiment asked its twin.

"Not yet. The psionic pulse of a silver eyed maiden is approaching." Infinite Vigil said.

Over the next few minutes Cinder fall continued to fight both people and eventually won, but at great difficulty, especially from the boy who almost took her head off once. The now tiered Cinder fall was about to finish of the two students when another started running up the side of Beacon tower aided by the glyph semblance of another student on the ground.

"Ah I'm glad the Schnee clan has survived," Graceful Sentiment remarked as the one the monitors called the silver eyed maiden reached the top of the tower.

Just as the new student reached the top of the tower Cinder fall used her most powerful attack and vaporised the two students. A moment later a powerful psionic shockwave emanated from the new student engulfing the area in a awesome power. The cloaked sentinel barely got out of range of the effect but managed to keep from being damaged and resumed observing.

* * *

 **Location** Zerg hive cluster

 **Continent** Avalon

In a special chamber of the inner hive cluster were ten recesses in the chitin floor each filled with green goo and two of the tubs were occupied. The two people in the tub like recesses were a young man and woman. The woman looked just like Pyrrha Nikos and the other was a young man with silver hair and blue eyes.

"Gah! ahh... ugh... aah... damn should have used psi-armor level 2," the boy exclaimed as he woke up.

A moment later Pyrrha woke up gasping for air her eyes darting around and very disoriented from the very traumatic experience of dying.

The boy sat up and watched Pyrrha as she calmed down on her own and started looking around. "Ah... ah... guh ah uh Dante, wah? where are we?" she asked with a serious look of confusion on her face.

Dante was about to reply when the organic door to the chamber opened and a white cloaked figure walked in, their face obscured by the hood. "I,m glad your both ok. But Dante why didn't you use you full power?" the person who was a woman asked in a greatly concerned tone.

"Uh... sorry to make you worry but that maidens power packs a punch," Dante replied rubbing the back of his neck.

Pyrrha was even more confused then before as she tried to understand her current situation. "Um can I please asked what is this place and what's going on I... I thought I had died."

Dante and the cloaked woman glanced at each other and then back to Pyrrha. "Miss Pyrrha i'm sure this is... very confusing to you but please believe me when I say i've been through it myself. Although my situation was a... little different," the woman explained as she stepped forward and kneeled down over Pyrrha pulling back her hood with a hand covered in by a chitin like armor plating.

Pyrrha gasp her eyes going as wide as they could be as she saw the face of the woman. She had some segmented insect like tendrils replacing her hair and a armor plating chitin covering the edges of her pale face but what was even more shocking to Pyrrha was the fact that she looked like the spitting image of Ruby even with the silver eyes, just looking like a mature adult. "Uh... your scared by me aren't you," she said timidly.

"I'm not, if you weren't infested you would have died from the wound's Salem gave you. Not even a queens transfusion ability could have saved you after being split in half like that." Dante quipped giving his explanation as he lay in his green goo bath.

"Uh?... you look... just like..." Pyrrha stammered in further confusion but her mind was putting the pieces together.

"Ruby. Thats because Im her mother... Summer Rose."

* * *

 **Wow! Over 22,000 words. My Longest chapter yet. :)-:( Ugh i'm so tired.**

 **Onto the next chapter I go after a few days rest.** **Space colonies, E-drugs, cyborgs and Cyber Zerg oh! my.**


	12. Chapter 12

For those of you who like the Halo Spartans in general, the next arc of my story is for you. This arc is my version of the beginning of the Spartan 1 program. Master Chief, Cortana, DR Halsey and all the other Spartan 2s will still be in my story but further on. It will be awhile until they are born and I'm doing the Spartan 1 and 2 programs differently then in Halo canon. There will be a BIG difference between the Spartan 1 and 2 programs.

Try and guess what that is.

Warhammer 40k. Psychic, Psyker.

Starcraft Psionic, Psiker.

* * *

 **Location** Inapplicable. Middle of nowhere I guess?

 **Time frame** Inapplicable. I have no f-ing clue?

 **Dimension** Psyon's private construct universe.

In a reality of infinite sky that stretched out into a seemingly infinite horizon with blue skies and white clouds above and black thundering storm clouds below and planets of varying sizes visible off in the distance, floated a simple fantasy airship. It was just a three hundred meters long red wood boat with a massive balloon strapted above it by many black cables. The upper deck was flat and open with many plant gardens along the sides consisting of vegetables and fruits even a few trees of many odd and varied forms, colors and shapes that were not from any other known species or planets.

At the center of the deck stood a large tent shaped like a triangle with it's three poles supporting its three extended awnings which extend from the decagon (ten sided hexagon) shaped tent body. The avatar of Pyson, the being which created the combination universe Ellen was born into, moved away a flap of the tents opening and walked out of his? her?, it's home.

The avatar form of Psyon was a mostly humanoid being of a genderless form as it had qualities that were of both feminine and masculin, standing seven feet tall on long pointed legs that ended in feet that split into three long flat featureless toes, wearing a closed black plating and gray under cloth overcoat, that was open in the upper chest exposing his pale gray skin and the gold chain and ruby cross hanging on his chest, and extending from his lower back was a tail that split into seven wings that glowed and shifted between all the colors of the rainbow which his gray white hair also glowed faintly with, as faint lights of many colors traced along each strand of hair.

Psyon's avatar form walked to the front bow of the airship in the infinite sky and watched as the more interesting events unfolding on Remnant reached there current climax. Psyons gaze pierced through the boundary between universes and time to see that last of the more interesting things the Zerg of Ellen's swarm are doing on on Remnant.

After words the Zerg construct nation of Atlantis took the surviving population of Xanadu in as refugees and honored guests and the people of Xanadu entered a age free of the threat of Grimm but not one in which they are allowed to become complacent as most citizen's took part in a new tradition Solus created to keep such counter productive thoughts at bay and make sure the people of both Atlantis and the now defunct Xanadu active, strong and retain their combat skills.

This new tradition was the hunting of Grimm and taming of Zerglings as battle mounts. The taming of Zerglings was a difficult thing to accomplice for the humans even though Solus gave the Zerglings a limited free will that allowed them to choose to go and do what they want within certain limits such as not leaving the borders of Atlantis, not attacking anyone who is not Grimm and not morphing into a Baneling, but alpha morphs were allowed some times.

The tradition helped keep the military of Atlantis and the knight guards active and skilled since no Grimm can survive entering the borders of Atlantis for long. Much to Salem's frustration in the few times she attempted to attack the nation only to fail every time. Salem then understood that these Zerg as she discovered were far superior to Grimm in every way, and in the few times Grimm managed to kill Zerg they started to dissolve into a pool of acidic liquified flesh soup, indicating that the Zerg had gained the ability to self destruct after being killed. This would greatly reduce the possibility that the Overminds swarm would gain the Essence of Ellen's swarm.

It was not the same as Grimm dissolving however as Solus and his evolution master Vo'zen discovered. The Grimm that die just loose cell cohesion and fall apart when they are hit with a strong enough attack that may or may not kill them as the cells of Grimms bodys fall apart. It was also discovered that certain types of Grimm (like the Dragon) have the ability to use Dust fueled elemental psionic attacks or abilities, but Grimm are unable to form a aura or develop a semblance. And in time Salem would seek way's and allies to evolve her Grimm to match the Zerg in power.

"Hmm is there anything else going on," Psyon mused as he? her? it? looked to other places around the galaxy.

In the galactic neighborhood of Earth, Ellen's swarm has been moving around from system to system creating more mobile space platforms and increasing their numbers as they moved around the galaxy. However it seems Ellen had also left a few hive clusters at the Alpha centauri star system (the closest star system to Sol, Earths star system) along with many other star systems surrounding them.

"Ellen must be placing hive clusters in star systems around Earth to test humanity once they achieve faster than light drive technology," Psyon commented.

Psyon then turned his reality penetrating vision to the Koprulu sector where the Overminds original swarm and the Protoss empire were having a good old war on a scale that any race from the Warhammer 40k universe would envy. The Protoss empire had managed (with great effort) to quarantine the Overminds swarm to the few tens of thousands of star systems surrounding Char, which was about one tenth of the total Koprulu sector, but as Psyon looked into the Overminds mind (something few beings in that universe could do without being caught) he discovered the Overmind had become obsessed with evolving his swarm so that they could devour the psionic abilities of the Protoss. But try as they might Abathur and the other evolution masters could not achieve that goal because of the Protoss Khala which subsumed their very essence with psionic power like a shell that prevented the Zerg from devouring their essence and also left a terrible taste in the Zergs mouths.

"Hmm I wonder how Ellen will intervene in... THAT... MESS... and if her swarm can devour Protoss essence, hmm?"

Psyon also observed that The dark templar Narizem of Shakuras had not had contact with the Zerg yet. Psyon saw that this was because Shakuras was on the exact total opposite side of the Koprulu sector from Char. With the main Protoss empire and lots of empty space between them and the Overminds swarm.

"Wonder if Zeratul will encounter the Zerg earlier than in the original StarCraft universe?"

Psyon again turned his sight to the Koprulu sectors far edge where the Tal'darim home world Slayn was. The Tal'darim were slowly building up their forces under the leadership of Amon and Samir who it seems had discovered the location of the Forerunner Keyship in the Covenant capital of High Charity which they needed to reach installation 00 (also known as the lesser ark) and stop the construction of new Halos or maybe take it over. But they could not risk exposing themselves to the Monitors just yet. As soon as the lesser ark comes under fire it's defense systems fire power will annihilate Amon's Tal'darim forces. No Amon and Samir have planned to let others like the humans or Covenant reach the Lesser Ark first, and sneak their own sealth forces in with them and find and disable the defenses of the Lesser Ark.

"Amon certainly is thinking things through. Well he is in a less than favorable position at the moment. And he is a powerful warp entity who fought in the three way galaxy wide war between the Xel'naga (Forerunners) the Flood and his master who was created by the strongest emotion of the Forerunners."

Psyon smiled at the progress so far and at the former templar Alarak and his antics of using his brain and brutality to out smart and backstab his way up the chain of ascension.

"He he always entertaining that one. Now lets see how Aliasse is doing?

Psyon then turned his gaze to Earth and it orbital colonies.

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

 **Spartans Rising Part 1**

* * *

 **Sol system,** Extreme Earth orbit

 **Date,** March 4th, Tuesday, 2290

 **Location,** Lagrange point 2, colony 4

 **Name,** Arden colony

The space around Earth glittered as many dozens of multi kilometer long colonies stations resting at their Lagrange points orbiting humanities home world along with many thousands of ships of many types and models both civilian transports and cargo craft mixed with military ships. Some few dozen or so Vanguard class cruisers along with other types with new and old models. Many of the new colonies took the shape of the classic O'Neill cylinder space colony which were the larger scale replacement's for the older Bernal sphere colonies that were constructed in the second wave of space colonization of Earth and Reaches solar systems, and most of which were now well over a century old and being rapidly replaced by the far larger and advanced O'neill cylinder type space colony which before, was far to costly and difficult to mass produce until five decades ago when the massive scale construction technology also known as the colony class builder ships (CCBS) were completed.

These massive ships can build larger scale colonies quickly with their many human workers, smart AI, a army of dumb AI controlled drone craft and a dozen internal factories that use the latest and most advanced 3d molecular printing systems to create the colony core support shaft, fusion reactors, multi layered self sealing air tight hull plating and life support systems that will slowly form into a new colony shell that can then be filled with buildings, plants and forests, artificial mountains and lakes depending on the purpose of the space colony.

Although CCBS's cost nearly as much as a Bernal sphere colony (And are almost the same size) CCB ships allow for the faster, more efficient and far less costly construction of larger scale space colonies like colony Arden which was the forth O'Neill class space colony to be built in recorded history, and the best selling points to them was that fact one CCB ship could build another CCB ship which was used to quickly construct six of such ships within a half decade at a cost that was only double the construction cost of the first CCB ship and then have them build six O'neil class colonies together.

Arden may have been the forth of it's type to be built in recorded history but after decades of non stop construction the Sol system now had nearly a hundred O'neill class colonies scattered around many of its planets. Some space colonies were made to be massive mining craft used in the mining efforts in the asteroid belt and in the outer solar system, while others were used as giant amusement parks, and others as giant space hotels housing many thousands of workers who would use the now common shuttle craft that swarm the space between the colonies. Though the range of such craft was limited to just the local colonies requiring actual space ships to travel longer distances such as across the solar system, but small craft could be used to traverse the ancient warp gate on Mars. Which has been the subject of many long and varied experiments by scientists over the years to unlock the secret to faster than light travel. Currently two scientists named Tobias Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa were spear heading such research on Mars.

Down through the years Arden colony had changed a bit since it was a generalist type colony that could be reconfigured to do many things. But at the current point in time it was serving as a industrial colony that refined and processed ore mined in the outer solar system and as a transit hub/rest point to the many traveling people going between the inner and outer solar system.

Another odd quirk of Arden colony was that it had become the cyborg capital of the solar system with nearly ninety two percent of the population having some kind of artificial body part or another (and yes that includes mechanical Cat ears and tails). Many workers had their brain and organs transplanted into a cybernetic humanoid shell with a face and form that was modeled after their original bodies unless they wanted to look differently or more attractive looking for their wife's or husbands.

These new bodies allowed the colony workers in the ship docks and factories to work more freely and for longer periods of time which was a boost to the economy and lessened company safety costs of protective suits that were normally needed to protect the workers from radiation, chemicals and the vacuum of space, only in the case of the people who had such cyberization done the humanoid shell that housed their brain and organs acted as the protective system and also allowed them to remain able to eat, drink and have children while also having the strength and protection that the new body provides.

Arden colony is also something of a gathering place for the types of people who are cyborg enthusiast and have a attraction to the tech and it's many... peculiarities such as cyborg dogs and cats and other odd things people do with the tech such as creating cyborg bodies that are modeled after famous comic book superheroes or videogame characters and having them fight in arenas for people's entertainment like some kind of weird cyborg cosplay combat. But to be honest such things only attracted many tourists to the colony who, may not be into getting their bodies chopped up and replaced with a carbon-nano-ceramic skeleton and cnt muscle fiber replacement's but people do find such things entertaining.

Even though Arden was mainly an industrial colony it also had its far share of hotels, restaurant's and trinket shops for all the tourists that come through to spend their money on. And it was at one of these restaurants street side seating areas that a dark haired woman with sunglasses and a expensive looking suit sat, enjoying her coffee and cookies when she received a E-mail.

Her phone [Beeped] as it showed a new mail had been received.

"Hmm," the woman mumbled to herself as she took a sip of her coffee and opened the new e-mail.

{Miss shadow. I am police commissioner Samuel liner and I have heard much about your skills and perfect arrest record. I would like to employee you for a investigation concerning the local E-drugs and smuggling operation in our colony. I have full authority to pay your fee and give you full access to our files on the case, baring of course that you agree to the non disclosure agreement concerning the police evidence of course. If you accept this job I look forward to working with you.} {Message end}

Miss shadow leaned back into her chair thinking as she took another sip of her coffee, musing about the job offer.

"Hmm oh well, may as well," With that decided Miss shadow summoned a taxi and waited eating the last of her cookies and coffee while the auto driving taxi car pulled up to the street side restaurant. Miss shadow got in and left telling the car to go to the colony police HQ in the 2nd district.

As Miss shadow left a man in a suit with short hair walked into the seating area for the restaurant and looked around but not seeing who he wanted to find he then used his systems authority on the nere by security cameras using his cyberlink, a internal wireless communication system in his head which was a simple and common form of cyberization.

He looked through the more recent video records and found the woman known as Miss shadow just leaving not a minute ago. "Uh, just missed her!" the man said to himself as he connected to a long distance link that connected to his ships quantum com system that allowed instant faster than light communication across the star system with no time lag. It even worked from Reach to Earth and was a system the United Terran Government, military and companies used to link their respective factions and branch's that were scattered across the two star systems.

"Yes its me... no unfortunately I missed her... ok i'll stay in the area until she comes back and i'll make contact then... understood. [click] Hmm may as well enjoy myself then. The man said as he sat down and ordered himself something to eat.

Meanwhile minutes later Miss shadow reached the police HQ of the colony which rested at the base of one of the main support towers that connects the colonies outer shell to the inner colony core which houses the artificial lighting and fusion reactors that are the main power source and also acts as the spine of the colony.

Showing her ID to the guard at the door Miss shadow was ushered into the building and met with a officer who had been waiting for her and they walked to the office of Samuel Liner.

"Ah i'm glad you decided to take the job Miss shadow and it's a pleasure to finally meet you," Samuel Liner exclaimed as he stood up and shook Miss shadows hand.

"It a pleasure to meet you to mister Liner. Now if I may can we go into more detail about this case of E-drugs coming into the colony?"

"Of course." Commissioner Liner sat back down and hit a button on his desk that closed the blinds and darkened the room as a hologram blinked on over his desk.

The hologram showed a human's brain with cyber implants and then it was affected by a E-drug that caused the typical effects a mind altering drug would have but then it caused a falte in the programming of one implant and then that cascaded into failures in the others and then back into the brain and caused a full blown seizure that killed the simulated brain.

"That was a simulation of what the worse reaction to E-drugs is." commissioner Liner said as he shut off the hologram and turned the lights back on. "Hopefully we can bring down the people who are smuggling these E-drugs along with whatever else they bring into our colony."

"You really didn't need the light show commissioner Liner. I've already took the job so all I need is the info on the main lead," Miss shadow stated.

"Of course. I was just showing you the effects of the E-drug and how deadly it can be when overused [sigh] which happens far too often. We lost 50 people last month alone."

Commissioner Liner then downloaded a file on the case concerning all of the details of the smuggling operation the police have found so far and how they may be entering the colony.

"I assume your coming to me because I can go places and do things you can't," Miss shadow said as she looked through the files.

The commissioner nodded. "Yes and no. We have evidence that a psiker is working with the smugglers and using their... 'gifts' to get through the normal colony security some how?."

Miss shadow stopped and looked the commissioner in the eyes. "Shouldn't the psi-academy have picked them up?"

"Yes well the academy can't find EVERYONE who develops psionic abilities all the time. There's bound to be a few that fall through the cracks here and there. And I would like to explore all my options before asking 'them' for help and that's where free agents like you come in" commissioner Liner admitted.

Miss shadow sighed and stood up. "I understand why you came to me then. I'll updated you on my progress when I find something of note. No doubt this psiker will be well guarded, but I can handle a untrained rouge psiker should I haft to fight them."

"I'm glad to hear that," commissioner Liner replied as Miss shadow left his office.

Miss shadow left the police HQ and took her taxi to the otherside of the colony. By the information gathered by the police there is a possible lead. One of the dock workers who has a criminal record may be working with the E-drug smugglers, however there's little evidence to his involvement... so far.

Miss shadow arrived at a bar the space port workers frequent often and it was a place she often went to to get information on the black market objects when a job calls for it.

The words Salazar's bar and pub flashed brightly on the neon-sign over the door as Miss shadow entered the building. She had been here a few times before on other investigations and that's why mister Salazar the bar keep recognized her as he cleaned a beer glass.

"Hello Miss shadow, what are you here for today?" Salazar a man of turkish decent asked as he pored a drink and placed it on a conveyor belt on the counter which sent it down to the other end of the counter where a man grabbed it and took a drink of the cold alcohol.

"Im looking for this man have you seen him in your bar Sal?" Miss shadow said politely showing Sal a picture of the suspect.

"Hmm he's a regular and sometimes comes in with these other two guys who only come on mondays for some reason," Sal answered.

"Can you give me a description of those other men he comes here with?" Miss shadow asked.

"Yeah give me a minute," Sal replied as he used his inplant to send some of his memories of the men to Miss shadows phone.

Miss shadow looked at the image on her phone and smiled. "Thanks Sal,"Miss shadow thanked as she sent some money to Sal's bank account.

"Anytime miss S," Sal thanked as he poured another drink.

A man in the corner of the room kept a eye on this Miss Shadow as she left the bar and sent a message via his implant to his friend who was the suspect the lady was after.

Miss shadow left Salazar's bar and pub and proceeded to take her taxi to the apartment block of the suspects. The habitation blocks for workers and their families are built for capacity first and comefurt second as the multi story wall shaped building ringed around the colonies cylinder shaped interior like an artificial mountain range of towers and apartments ten stories high and a seventy meters thick.

Miss Shadow took a elevator up to level 10 and walked across a walkway that overlooked a park area on one side of the wall shaped Habatation block. Miss Shadow continued on her way until reaching the apartment of the suspect.

[Knock] [knock] Miss Shadow knocked on the door.

A few moments later a loud noise was heard on the other side of the door that suspiciously sounded like a wall being knocked down by a cyborg followed by screaming from someone who was living on the other side of the wall.

"Oh! great he's running," Miss Shadow said sarcastically with a eye roll and sigh. She broke the door down and found a big hole in the wall with a mother and her young kid in the adjoining apartment. Miss Shadow chased after the running suspect already thinking someone at Salazar's bar had tipped him off. But that begs the question why would he stick around until she arrived?.

"Ugh" Miss Shadow grunted as she rounded a corner finally catching sight of the suspect who was a big guy with arms of black exposed cnt muscle fibers with military boots and camo pants and a black tank top. The chase continued across a hundred meters of the walkway that ringed along the whole habitation block.

The suspect then jumped over the railing falling multiply stories and landed in a crouch cracking the polycrete ground before he took off in a dead sprint again, but Miss shadow wasn't loosing her suspect and she let loose a small fly sized drone that followed the suspect keeping a eye on him as he ran into a subway terminal and tried to blend into the crowed. The suspect then took the express train to the otherside of the colony and after about seven minutes of traveling got out giving a sigh thinking he's in the clear.

'Damn I need to thank Johnny for the heads up after I get back,' the suspect thought as he walked through the subway station. "Guess I shouldn't have waited around... but I couldn't leave this around for the cops to find. Guess I shouldn't have just left it laying under the bed like that, it took forever to find it." the suspect mumbled to himself as he felt a object in his pants pocket as he left the train station and signaled a taxi with his implant.

A few seconds later a auto driving taxi pulled up to the station and the suspect got in and breathed a sigh of relief. The taxi's simple AI unit asked for a destination, but as the suspect opened his mouth the taxi was flipped slowly and gently onto it's side not shattering any glass but knocking the suspect for a loop as his world was flipped onto it's side.

"Shit what the hell?!" the suspect exclaimed as he stood up in the now sideways car and opened the door looking around but not seeing anything but the crowed of people staring at him in his side ways taxi. "What the fuck! is someone messing with me?"

"Yeah me."

The suspect turned around and saw the same woman he had thought he lost standing behind him. Miss Shadow hopped onto the sideways taxi and grabbed the suspect by the face and pulled him out of the taxi like a ragdoll before smashing him into the ground with such force it cracked the ground.

"YOU made me run all the way across the colony. I don't like running that far unless im exercising so please answer my questions or I can't guarantee your safety from my fist," Miss Shadow yelled and drove the threat home by casually punching into the polycrete ground next to the suspects head down to her elbow.

"Uh... I um I..." the suspect stammered a little perturbed that the woman could just lift him like a childs toy which was not THAT easy even for other cyborgs given the weight of his custom neosteel skeletons. Most cyborgs have a carbon nanotube reinforced ceramic skeleton but this guy had specific tastes and wanted a heavy duty skeleton to be even tougher to knock around but it also made him slower and almost double the average cyborgs weight which was normally 278 pounds and his was over 400 pounds.

"Oh, don't give me the, my boss is scary and will kill me if I talk routine. Because believe me when I say that I'M way scarier than whatever cheap goon squad your boss has so why don't you do both me and your self a favor and talk. I promise to have your sentence reduced if you don't waste my time further," Miss shadow stated as she glared at the suspect below her.

"Uh!... ok ok, but can you let me up please, everyones looking at us."

Miss Shadow shrugged already feeling the eyes of the crowd on them and took her hand off the mans face allowing him to stand up.

"Uh thanks."

"Just follow me," Miss Shadow said as she rolled the taxi back onto its wheels and they both got in.

[Destination please] the robotic car asked not affected in the least bit by the fact it was rolled onto its side. Normally auto taxis would report any abuse or damage to themselves or anything in their sight as another security measure used by the police but Miss Shadow had moved the taxi onto it's side slowly and didn't do any damage so the taxis AI didn't report anything.

"Just drive to the otherside of the colony," Miss shadow ordered the taxi.

The taxi did as instructed and drove off through a street and onto a overpass that ran straight across the colony from one end to the other.

"Eh damn how in the world did you get to the other side of the colony as soon as I did?" the suspect asked scratching his head on the question.

"That's a trade secret. Now tell me what you know about the E-drug smuggling operation," Miss shadow asked with a subdued hostility still mad that she had to hoof it across the colony.

"Eh [sigh] fine you'll probably throw me out a airlock next if I don't tell you."

"Good plan." Miss Shadow replied seriously considering the option and making the suspect flinch and regret the slip of his tongue.

"Uhh... anyway you'll need these."

The suspect pulled out a pair of dark glasses from his pocket handing them to Miss shadow.

"Their shades that can see specific light spectrums. They allow me to see the marked cargo containers im supposed to move."

"Huh! special light emitting paint that uses a none visible spectrum of light that can only be seen in certain light wavelengths. Interesting!, and smart. So long as the police don't catch on anyway."

"Uh yeah whatever you say," the suspect said as they passed a colony support column beside the overpass.

"I would have thought a big guy like you would have put up more of a fight?" Miss shadow commented.

"Yeah well only idiot's fight against someone with a military grade cyber body and maybe training. Were you in the military or some spook secrete organisation like ONI. You had to be to get a body like that. I have a neosteel skeleton and you lifted me like a ragdoll!?"

Miss shadow turned to the suspect and smiled innocently. "Maybe... but if I told you I would have to kill you. You know how ONI works."

The man gulped as he looked away at the buildings and parks passing by. "Ugh i'll take your word for it."

"Now tell me who these other two men are," Miss shadow asked showing the man the picture of him and the other two suspects on her cell phone.

"That's Roger and Max, their the guys who... convinced me to take this job on the side."

"You know where I can find them?"

"No clue. They just show up and give me a new pair of shades every week and take the old pair."

"Again smart switching both the paint used and the shades every week," Miss shadow commented as they pulled off the overpass and onto another road. Miss shadow then raised her head as she noticed something.

"Huh!?... great," Miss shadow then twisted in her seat bracing herself against the suspect and then kicking the door off its hinges and yelling at the suspect to follow her or he's dead. Both of them jumped out of the car and rolled on the road as the taxi continued along its way a bit more until a heavy cargo loaded 18 wheeler smashed into it and they both exploded shattering windows and damaging nearby buildings and stopping any other traffic on the road.

Miss shadow and the suspect stood up as the fire of the two wrecked vehicles burned. "Well it seems that someone wants us... or you dead, maybe your second less than legal employers?"

"Uh how in the world did you know that truck was coming, don't tell me your one of those..."

Miss shadow turned to the suspect and just smiled the fire burning behind her.

Over head a drone watched as the the two targets survived the truck bomb.

* * *

 **Somewhere in Arden colony in a large open and expensive looking office with a view overlooking the city.**

"Damn the bomb didn't kill them," a gruff man in a expensive suit yelled sitting up from his chair as he turned from the screen to his goons. "Anyone want to explain why that little bitch and the loud mouth aren't dead?"

The mans goons looked at a loss for words until one made a suggestion.

"Uh boss maybe the girl got things wrong I mean maybe this Miss shadow is a psiker too and she messed the prediction up or... something."

The boss man sat in his chair considering the theory. "Hmm. This Miss shadow does have quit the reputation of being hard to kill. Not just in Arden but the whole 'side' (name of a group colonies)."

The boss man reclined in his chair and took a sip of his alcohol drink. "Maybe. The girl can only see a short time into the future so maybe she missed something. If this Miss shadow is a psiker she should be able to sense her when she gets in range and then we can choose the best way to deal with her."

"And what about the cops boss by now they know about our marked cargo containers?" the second goon said.

The boss man shrugged and grinned. "That's no worry, we were just using those modified containers with that glow marks trick to smuggle a little extra into the colony. Our main route in to Arden is still a safe secrete. We just have to eliminate that Miss shadow before she uncovers more of our operation."

* * *

 **Main police office Arden colony**

The police were quick to respond as any unauthorised fire or explosion was considered a major threat to the colony considering they were inside a enclosed spinning cylinder in space. Firefighter crews, security drones and police cars arrived just a minute after the attempted assassination on Miss shadow and the now compliant suspect.

A half hour later the compliant suspect was in a interrogation cell repeating everything he told Miss shadow to the police for protection.

"Well that's new, paint that glows in a specific light spectrum used to mark illegal cargo so it can be moved be for being inspected," police commissioner Samuel Liner said as he watched the suspect talk to a officer about what little he knows.

"It would seem that Miss shadow has poked the beehive." Lieutenant Luke commented as he looked on a paper display screen of a list of the cargo types and ships the suspect said his marked containers were coming from.

"It looks like there's a lot of different ships and transport companies that are being used by the smugglers." Lieutenant Luke said explaining their current findings. "It would seem that the marked cargo containers our officers found have a false wall that holds the E-drugs, but other illegal contraband was discovered to. The list includes some guns, gems, gold jewelry and even some... ugh fetuses in life support capsules what the hell?!" the lieutenant exclaimed in shock of the illegal cargo the police found just a short time ago at one of the space docks storage warehouse's.

"Ugh... well this is certainly a brake in the case anyway," commissioner Liner said as he turned to the Lieutenant. "Where is Miss shadow?"

"Oh she's out looking for anymore leads, one being those two men, Roger and Max who recruited our suspect here whose name is James by the way."

"More than likely those two are aliases or dummy android bodies that were used as proxy's to keep the real smugglers at arms length with their grunts like James here taking the fall in their place."

"I've heard of criminals in other colonies using that tactic. Then how will Miss shadow find them or trace them back to the ringleader?" Lieutenant Luke asked.

"Hmmm I don't know how she does it but she has a perfect arrest record and always finds the most impossible to get information and evidence. She'll find the needle in the haystack it's just a matter of time," commissioner Samuel Liner stated.

* * *

Meanwhile across Arden colony Miss shadow was investigating the people who transport the marked cargo containers after they enter the colony but after hours of questioning the shipping companies she found nothing but dead ends. Miss shadow then decided to take some time off and return to her favorite restaurant for something to eat and think on her next move.

After arriving she sat down at her normal chair and looked at the menu and then paid for and sent her order to the kitchen with the electronic menu page on her table. A few minutes later the waiter brought her a plate of steak with a side of vegetables. Miss shadow gave thanks for her food and dug in using the knife to cut the steak into smaller mouth sized bits along with the pieces of carrots and potatoes before eating them.

After Miss shadows second bite of her meal a man came up to her table. "Miss shadow I presume," the man said politely as the female private investigator chewed her food and looked up to the man. "I'm a representative of Neo-Cortex. Do you know of them?"

Miss shadow chewed her food, swallowed and replied. "Yes but i've never had any dealings with them. If you here to hire me I'm already on a job."

"May I sit down?" Miss shadow shrugged and guestuared to the chair opposite her and the man sat down. "Miss Shadow my name is Sampson and in my experience it is always best for all parties involved if less time is spent muttering nonsense and people cut to the chase, so I will do so. I am here to tell you that my employer the CEO of Neo-Cortex wishes to meet with you."

Miss shadow stopped eating and stared at the man. "Why would the CEO of NeoCortex want to meet me?"

"I don't know, but I was told to mention your real name is... Aliasse and... say Valkyrur?," Sampson said wondering why he had to say such a odd thing.

Miss Shadow or rather Aliasse dropped her fork and knife on the plate and stared daggers into Sampson making him flinch back and start sweating.

"Uh um... that is... your... real name... is it not?" Sampson stammered as the revealed Aliasse sighed as she realised the man was just told to say that to get her attention. Whoever this person in NeoCortex is that wants to meet her, they must be well informed or someone from Aliasse's past, but who that could be is a mystery at the moment.

Aliasse extended her incorporeal aura into Sampson's head and scanned his thoughts and memories. A telepathic technique Aliasse had learned over the many long years but that the other Valkyrur Ellen had gained quickly by devouring the Tal'darim Azrumaths psionic power and life force at the end of the first Zerg war.

Aliasse sighed as she didn't find out anything that Sampson hadn't told her already except for the fact that he didn't know who the CEO of NeoCortex was. Not even what they looked like or even their name as he was just a low level employee and the CEO of NeoCortex is known for keeping their identity secret.

"So your big boss wants me to meet with them huh?" Aliasse asked already knowing the answer.

"Um yes...," Sampson replied loosening his tie, a little stressed out from the death glare Aliasse gave him a second ago.

"Ok I'll go meet your boss. But only AFTER i'm done with my current job," Aliasse answered.

"I understand." Sampson replied with a smile as he pulled a small cylinder shaped usb drive and handed it to Aliasse who took it and placed it into a cyber port at the back of her neck. "That is a high level security ID key used to enter the NeoCortex main office building. You do know where it is right?"

"New york correct," Aliasse replied looking over the security ID key as it was filed into her cyber implants memory which was the most simple and common form of cyberization as it was as convenient in the modern era as cell phones and credit cards in previous era's and also used in the UNSC military.

"Yes." Sampson replied. "I believe my work here is done unless you have any more questions Miss shadow?"

Aliasse looked up at Sampson as the date key appeared superimposed over her view of the world as a disc with many interlocking segments. "No. I suppose i'll get all my answers when I meet your boss," Aliasse said as she closed the ID key and it disappeared from her sight.

Sampson stood up and said his goodbys to Aliasse before taking a taxi and leaving.

As he left Aliasse sighed wondering who this big shot in NeoCortex is that wants to meet her.

"I suppose i'll just have to wait for that until I complete my current job," Aliasse said out loud as she finished her meal and got back to work as Miss shadow. The lights on the colony core started to dim to the night cycle as Miss shadow returned to her apartment to review her findings so far.

It was a typical apartment room with one bed and bathroom, Aliasse had become quit the penny pincher over the years knowing her savings would be useful someday. Miss shadow sat on the edge of her bed and snapped her fingers three times activating a holo screen and holo keyboard as she started her review of the evidence so far as images of the suspect James and the other seven dock workers who the police had found to be working for the smugglers as go betweens to get the E-drugs and any other contraband into the colony.

The paid off dock workers would identify the marked cargo in the warehouse and load them onto transports trucks which are also marked before they could go through normal screening process. And then those transport drivers whom were also paid off by the smugglers would drop the marked cargo off at random points all over the colony and continue with the delivery of their normal cargo.

"Hmm, those drop off points can't be random," Miss shadow mused as she brought up the locations of all the subway and emergency tunnel infrastructure throughout the colony and low and behold the tunnels match up almost perfectly with the drop off locations the arrested suspects reported. But their was also a wrinkle in that those tunnels don't have security cameras in them but their entryways do at least.

Aliasse then ran a security scan of all the security cameras at or near the locations of the entryways of the tunnels big enough for vehicles but found nothing.

"Hmm what to do, what to do," Aliasse repeated as she swung her legs out and in, thinking when a idea clicked in her mind. Already having colony security authorization given by the colonies police commissioner Aliasse looked up the records of the traffic movements which again the police would have looked at but Aliasse is looking at it in a different way as she brought up the movements of every vehicle and pedestrian in the colony over the past four weeks and then correlated that date with the cameras sighting of the trucks and people that frequent the areas around any of the tunnel entryways and then scanned for any androids or cyborgs moving around the areas that were carrying any boxes.

After spending hours looking through all the raw date Aliasse found the next link in the trail the smugglers left as she found the same cyborgs and androids going to and from the same areas, all of which seemed to be carrying a large box and used the same routes the same days as the illegal cargo was dropped off and they even made poor attempts to hide this fact by just changing their clothes, skin and hair color. Which was done by color changing nanoparticles in their skin and clothes which was the same way Aliasse had changed her hair color. The nanoparticles are biodegradable or can be washed out as well.

Apparently the cyborgs and androids had been using the human access points of the tunnels that are in between buildings and had hacked the nearby security camera's date so they were out of sight when they picked up the cargo and then just walked it to wherever they take the stuff. And luckley they hadn't hacked the date of too many cameras as that would be a dead give way to the people that maintain the security cameras that they've been tampered with as the more cameras they hack increases the odds that they'll be found out.

"Bingo!" Aliasse exclaimed as she followed the routes of all the cyborgs and androids take through the colony and found where they all lead to. Three locations showed in red on the holo screen mape of the colony. A 'apartment building' a 'warehouse' and a 'garage' where they enter and leave from, and no one other then the cyborgs ever leaves the locations meaning the android pack mule's are just their to create more randomness to the people using the routes.

Aliasse then looked into who owned the three locations and again came up short as they were all abandoned or not owned at the time. But that begs the question why haven't they been demolished yet. In the modern era humanity is much more considerate of the things they create and leave behind be it trash, junk or abandoned building's which if they aren't being used then the local city planning authorities will normally find a use for them or demolish the buildings to make room for something new. Aliasse then looked into who owned the three buildings last and yet again came up short as the people who owned them are either dead or moved off the colony. Aliasse then started looking into the city planning bureau.

[Knock][Knock]

Aliasse turned her full attention to her front door.

"Room service" a muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

"I'll be there in a minute," Aliasse replied as she expanded her incorporel aura field to the man at her door discovering that it wasn't a man from the lack of a soul which Aliasse had developed a sense for but a android with a bomb in its torso.

Androids and other so called dumb AIs can be instilled with a mind and a pseudo personality and can be very convincing for the most part but there has always been slit differences between them and real people as androids and other purely machine intelligences lack a certain type of creativity and a engaging personality that can change and adapt organically as it grows older and has many life experiences like a Human or smart AI created from a human mind, which are by law now considered Human because they are created from a human like a baby is although the process IS different. But many scholars and scientists consider that when a smart AI is created fragments of the person's mind and soul are transferred or copied to the new smart AI like a child having parts of their parents DNA in them.

"Ugh you have got to be kidding me," Aliasse exclaimed with a eye roll as she had lost count of the number of times someone has tried to kill ker with this old trick over the last few decades she had been masquerading as Miss shadow private investigator. Well considering the number of high level criminals she had put away this shouldn't be surprising.

Aliasse got up and turned off her holo terminal and walked towards the door readying her aura, but at that moment her instincts flared and she turned around and scanned the nearby rooftops with her aura field and found another android with a M20 SSR MAV/AW military grade rocket launcher aimed right at her through the window. The android was invisible to her before because of its optical camo which rendered it invisible to both the naked eye and most IR sensor tech but it was still no match for her aura field scan.

"Well shit," Aliasse mumbled to herself as she formulated plan.

Thinking fast Aliasse used her aura to slice the door frame from the wall and grab it with the android and throw them both as fast as she could out her apartment window where the android exploded in mid-air shattering five stories of the apartment buildings windows. Moments later but still to slow for Aliasse the second android fired its rocket launcher only for the rocket to be shot down mid-air by a needle thin aure blade that bisected it down through the middle and a millisecond later it detonated doing less damage then the android bomb. The second android watched as Aliasse looked at it and made a gesture from the blown out window of her apartment and was then sliced into neatly cut slices of itself and dropped the rocket launcher.

Aliasse breathed a sigh of relief as the two assassin's were dealt with but her apartment was now window and doorless and she had outed herself as a psiker to the criminals shes after from the remote connection they had with the two assassin-roids as their called sometimes.

"Oh well my as well go on the offensive now," Aliasse mused as she decided to get changed into something more suited for combat."

Five minutes later Aliasse wore a gray and black skin tight bodysuit with thick pads on the shoulders thighs, chest and back with hard CNT reinforced ceramic contact points on the knuckles, boots, elbows and knees as she watched from another buildings roof top and gave her repot to colony police commissioner Samuel Liner, as a small crowed of people gathered on the streets below consisting of the colony police, fire fighters, ambulances and Paramedics who tended to people injured by the explosion.

"...And that's all I have to report on the case and the assassination attempt's on my life," she said to commissioner Liner over the phone.

~Understood Miss shadow, we'll investigate the city planning authorities and follow the lead you sent us. What will you do now that your case is over?~ commissioner Samuel Liner asked over the phone.

"Oh my job isn't over just yet. I still have someone to pay back for trying to kill me twice now."

~Oh?. Well good luck then and try and not cause to much collateral damage to my colony~

"Hehe ok i'll try that but I can't guarantee anything," Aliasse replied as she then ended the call.

Aliasse then turned around and started running along the roof top and jumped across the twenty foot gap to another building and then ran across it and leaped again onto the side of a skyscraper and using her aura stuck to the vertical surface like a spider. She then ran up the side of the forty story building to the roof. Aliasse then got a running start and jumped off the buildings roof, forming a gliding wing suit with her aura and glided across the colony to the area near her destination which was the location of the pskier the smugglers were using who by Aliasse's theory has been using a precognition ability to tell the smugglers when to send a shipment of their illegal contraband and which cargo containers to put it in so as to avoid the searches of the colonies space port security when they make their random searches for illegal cargo every now and then.

Aliasse had normally refrained from using her psionic powers at least to a minimum degree to avoid what she considered cheating as she wanted to only rely her mind and detective skills to solve cases during her 'so called vacation' as Miss shadow. But since that her time as Miss shadow was coming to a close she saw that it was at least useful to use her advanced Valkyrur psionic sensory abilities to locate the smugglers by the psiker they were using who was the only one in Arden colony besides Aliasse.

Aliasse snuck around the network of security systems surrounding a high rise building she sensed the young psiker was in as it was a simple task to use her aura field to sense where all the motion sensors, inferred, camares and fly sized security drones were and phase parts of her aura into their solid state and silence the security systems apart or just avoid them.

Aliasse could tell that who ever owned this building and was at the center of the smuggling operation was rich and influential in a criminal short of way that reminded her of mobsters from the 1920s given the decor. Aliasse had been into crime drama stories and other noir esque books for a few hundred years now and was apart of why she developed the new identity of Miss shadow and became a private detective which might seem odd in this modern age of space travel, space colonies and intersolar travel but it works for Aliasse and as she jumped up to the second floor she did feel a little regret that her time playing around while solving real crime cases was coming to a close.

Aliasse could feel the psiker was close and got serious focusing fully on trying to not get caught.

'If their a precog then this may be a trap,' Aliasse sighed silently as she clung to the ceiling, letting a passing guard move down the hallway but not before she read his mind to make sure he wasn't a android and this wasn't a trap or something. Once he was gone down the hall the shadowy infiltrator continued on her way.

After going through a few rooms and two hallways Aliasse finally reached the room the psiker was in which made Aliasse blink once she saw it. Passed a set of large double doors lay a japanese themed rock garden with a large stone in the center that screamed Yakuza in Aliasse's head. But it seemed out of place with the more western theme of the rest of the building. Aesthetics aside the room was beautiful. Aliasse stuck to the ceiling and walls avoiding any pressure sensors in the floor as she made her way to what she assumed to be the psikers bedroom.

Aliasse slowly slid the japanese door paneling open and crawled into the bedroom where a young girl no older than ten maybe lay sleeping. If she was the daughter of the smuggler then it would be a bit complicated taking her out of here. Aliasse sighed and decided to leave her alone for now and started to make her way to the main office when something big, bipedal and heavily armored crashed through the wall and aimed it's big gun at Aliasse.

"OK **** ME!" Aliasse exclaimed as she recognised the thing and leaped to the girls bed grabbing her while the gun tracked her movements and fired a barrage of 20mm automatic rounds. The gun fire ripped the room apart as Aliasse dodged to the side expanding her incorporeal aura sensory field and jumped around with the sleeping child in her arms staying out of the direct line of sight of the gun until she leaped out the door and back into the rock garden.

As Aliasse made her escape from the room the exo suits 20mm rifle went empty. The rifle's mag dropped and broke through the floorboards as a new mag was loaded and the exo suit turned around after them, which had to have been piloted by a android since Aliasse didn't sense a terran in it.

'Shit this is not good. This thing must have been set to trigger when the bed girls room door was opened,' Aliasse thought as she hide behind the large rock in the middle of the garden as the black and white exo suit slowly followed after them braking through the doorway and aimed its gun into the garden looking for it's targets. Knowing she had to take that thing out without bringing the building down, Aliasse placed the girl down on the ground and formed a aura barrier around the girl who was still out like a light, and a aura armor over herself, both of them were connected by a incorporeal aura line.

In the next instant Aliasse leaped out from cover and was tracked by the exo suit as it fired ripping holes along the wall. The repetitive bangs of the 20mm rifle resounded in the small garden as Aliasse leaped around the room like a blur, while the android controlled exo suit struggled to track its target leaping all over the place. After thirty seconds of this Aliasse extended the aura on her for arms into blades and closed the distance leaping over the exo suit and sliced it's arm off but not the one holding the rifle. The exo suit lifted a leg and rotated its body to aim behind itself and started shooting again but quickly ran out of ammo and now it had lost it's reloading arm. Aliasse took this opportunity to finish it off and sliced off the left leg and then pierced the torso where the androids brain was and ended the fight as the exo suit went limp.

"Damn how in the world did these guys get their hands on a military grade exosuit?," Aliasse complained as she walked back to the now demolished stone in the middle of the garden and removed the rubble from on top off the girl who had been protected by the aura barrier.

Aliasse held the still sleeping girl in two aura arms on her back as she continued along her way to the main office where she started up the desk mounted computer and looked for any evidence she could find.

"Ahh well I figured the date would be deleted." Aliasse mumbled as she started to leave.

A moment later the lights came on and ten bodyguard type androids in suits holding smgs ran into the room surrounding Aliasse who stood her ground.

~Well well well if it isn't the illustrious Miss shadow~ a grif sounding voice came from the desk computer screen that was now showing the rising and falling waves of a sound only screen.

"Great I guess that your the big boss of the smuggling operation," Aliasse replied lifting her hands up in the air.

~Yes and I was very surprised you survived that last attempt I made on your life. You are a hard one to kill which is way I decided to use this back up plan after my little bird told me you were coming here or rather there. It may destroy my favorite house and kill my little bird but it's nothing in the long run, and I know you won't survive this time.~

A moment later the building exploded as explosive charges detonated all over its lower floors collapsing the apartment building and creating a dust cloud that blanketed the area in pulverised polycreat dust.

On the other side of the colony a limo drove down the highway. Inside was a big man in a tan business suit with white strips watching the holo screen projected from the ceiling showing the destruction of his for more base of operation. "If she survives that i'll curse god for all the trouble."

"Think shes dead," asked a goon sitting opposite his boss inside the limo.

The boss man just uncorked a bottle of wine and poured a glass for himself.

"Don't joke around. She's got to be dead after that," said another goon as his boss took a drink of his wine.

"Still shame about the girl though," goon 1 said.

"Their a dime a dozen. I'll just have my man in the psi-academy on Reach look for another one on his day off. He is a wrangler after all so it's his job to look for little lost sheep and send them to where their most needed, he he," the boss man chuckled as he took another drink of his wine.

"Uh boss I don't want to be a worry wart but how does your guy in the academy keep from being found out. I mean it a place full of people that can read your mind after all?" goon 1 asked.

The boss man chuckled. "Oh there are ways to keep your secrets safe if you know how. I remember the guy saying something about neural resocialization."

"What... isn't that what they use to brainpan criminals in prison who can't rejoin society because of their violent tendencies or insanity?" stated goon 2.

"Yeah that's the one" the boss said as he poured himself another glass of wine. "It can also prevent a telepath from reading your mind if your know how to calibrate the machine properly but that's a closely guarded secret by the psi-academy."

"Hmm is that why the government keeps such a close guard on those resoc machines?"

"Yeah maybe," the boss man replied as he looked out the window. "Can't wait to get off this colony and back on Earth."

A moment later the car stopped. Sloshing around the boss mans wine and a little got onto his expensive shoes as the three in the back wondered they had stopped. "Driver what's wrong why have we stopped?" asked the angered boss man.

 _~Charles geist you and your associates are under arrest by the authority of the Arden colony police department. Come out with your hands up~_ Lieutenant Luke announced by loudspeaker from the police barricade of police cars and one APC blocking the road to the space port.

"Damn how did find they find me _grrrrr_ " The now named boss man Charles geist fumed as he held onto his glass barley keeping his cool.

* * *

A hour later Lieutenant Luke and other officers brought Charles geist and his men in handcuffs to the central police station to be processed and incarcerated. As he was being brought in Charles caught sight of Miss shadow in a casual dress as she smiled back at him. Charles looked at her in shock before sneering back and was then ushered away into the interrogation room for further questioning on his other associates in the Arden city planning bureau and the psi-academy.

Lieutenant Luke walked up to Miss shadow and asked. "How did you and the girl survive the building collapsing? it was a rubble pile when the first responders arrived."

Miss shadow turned to the lieutenant. "A lady can have her secrets now can't she. Besides how's the girl doing?" asking her own question.

The lieutenant turned to the young ten year old psiker girl in another room with a blanket over her shoulders and a very sad expression on her face but also one that seemed relived. "Shes fine just a little drugged by a sedative but no injuries... like you... of which i'm very curious about. But she hasn't said a thing since waking up."

Miss shadow humed to herself as she thought. "I'm a little worried about her mental state."

The lieutenant turned back to Miss shadow. "You think she's a threat to herself or others?."

Miss shadow shook her head. "No its more emotional trauma im worried about than anything. Who knows what she's been through while she was held by that Charles guy and his men."

Lieutenant Luke sighed. "If only our police department had a few agents from the psi-academy maybe this wouldn't have happened."

Miss shadow shrugged. "The population of normal Terrans to those with psionic potential is just about 99.5% to .5%. And around a hundred years ago on Reach it was only a fraction of that. There's only so many agents the academy can send out to places they can help in."

Lieutenant Luke scratched his head. "So the number of people developing psionic abilities are on the slow rise. Maybe in a few hundred years they'll be a academy agent in every police department. But I'm really surprised the military don't have some special ops group that consists of nothing but psikers."

There was silence between the two which made the lieutenant look to Miss shadow who replied. "Maybe there is and no one has ever seen them before. I know ONI has a few psionic agents but a black ops team... I don't think they have enough personnel with psionic abilities for that given THEIR, high standards and how hard it is for someone to pass their training requirement's. Anyway i'm off."

Miss shadow walked off a bit before turning around and asking the lieutenant. "Oh and lieutenant did you find out her name?"

The lieutenant turned to Miss shadow replying. "No like I said before she hasn't said a word and her ID record hasn't came up on any of the date bases we searched. She must have been smuggled into the colony otherwise we would have her arrival in our records at least."

Miss shadow thought for a moment before replying. "Hows Selvaria Bles sound."

The lieutenant blinked and shrugged. "It's better than Jane Doe. I'll put it into her record for now until she decides to give us her real name... if she has one."

"Hmm... good by lieutenant, I have a meeting to get to now."

The lieutenant and the girl now named Selvaria Bles both watched as Miss shadow entered the elevator and left, leaving the lieutenant to call the psi-academy and let them know that he has a young unregistered psiker in his care.

* * *

A hour later Aliasse was all packed and ready to go to New York city where the HQ of Neo Cortex and this unknown person who wants to meet with her is.

Aliasse entered the crowded space port at the front of the colony were many other people were coming and going to and off flights. The Arden colony space port area was actually a ring shaped cluster of eight space port terminals each connected to a inner ring of dozen's of ship docks. Each one connecting to a large center hollow in the front portion of the colony that's called the front gate.

The front gate is where incoming ships enter into the colony and are grabbed by large docking mag-clamps that run along the walls and pull the ships up (or down depending on your perspective) into the giant airlocks that separate the front gate from the port terminals and they are then placed into holding docks that are sized for shuttles and private ships of all kinds, each with their own launch tube that can send them back out of the colony again. This system of a one way entrance and multiple exits ensure that the possibility of accidents of ships or shuttles crashing is eliminated for the most part and makes the whole system more efficient and safer.

Aliasse walked to port terminal 4, dock 20 where her private shuttle was and boarded, starting up the autopilot AI and inputting the desired location. The AI then calculated the course and on one of the cockpit display screens created a simulated path from the Arden colony to one of Earths orbital elevators numbered NO.3 also known as Star-road. The other two's name's were Heavens pillar, and Black column. Each of the three massive 17 thousand mile long constructs which link the surface of the Earth to space are the centers of transportation to and off the Earth even though all three are still under construction which when completed will have them ending at around 40 to 50 thousand kilometers long. However it will still take a century or two for them to be completed given the slow but steady pace of construction.

It's actually not uncommon now a days for multiple generations of families to work on the elevator construction project which the construction of has also been a major boon to the economy along with the Mars elevators that are also under construction but a little farther behind.

After inputting her destination Aliasse moved to the seating area took a set as the AI of her shuttle communicated with the Port authority on their launch.

[Cut to a outside view showing the spinning cylinder shaped space station that is Arden colony]

The O'neill cylinder class colony like all the others like it was 10 kilometers long 4 kilometers wide with rounded ends and a outer surface covered in solar panels, with three agricultural rings at both ends and the middle which house many pods that produce food for the colony. The front end of the colony had a cross shaped com array with the front gate hollow in its center along with a few dozen holes around it on the curved surface for the launching shuttles.

~Port authority this is the autopilot AI for a private shuttle, designation 'Sleipnir' in dock 20. We will be launching to travel to Earth's orbital elevator NO3. Please confirm~ the robotic voice of the shuttle transmitted.

[Cut to the inside of the port authority command room where many workers were sitting in a semi circle observing the few dozen display screens along the curved walls. Each showing dozens of different colored and shaped ships entering and leaving the colony or in dock]

~Arden port authority to private shuttle Sleipnir. Your flight path is open and you are clear to launch~

[Cut to the Sleipnir shuttles dock as the giant airlock doors in front of the shuttle opened allowing the shuttle to be moved into the forward launching chamber]

~Confirmed Arden port authority. Entering launch tube now.~

The maglev platform the Sleipnir shuttle was on moved forwards into the airtight launch tube and the giant airlock closed behind it.

~We confirme airtight seal on launch bay doors. Opening outer doors,~ a member of the port authority said as they hit a button that opened the outer doors of the launch tube airlock.

In front of the Sleipnir shuttle the stars and space became visible at the end of a maglev launch tunnel as the giant doors in front of it parted.

~Final launch checks completed. Arden port authority requesting final permission to launch?~ the Sleipnir AI asked.

~We confirm Sleipnir your are go for launch.~

~Confirmed Arden port authority. Sleipnir shuttle launching~ the AI replied as it remotely activated the maglev launch system.

A moment later Aliasse felt herself accelerate at a rapid pace as her shuttle launched into space. Aliasse turned to the wall and pressed a button causing the whole interior of the shuttle to change color and show the outside of the shuttle like one big window or display screen.

The blackness of space and the glittering of distant stars became her world as Aliasse stared out into the void of space. In the ever increasing distance behind the shuttle were a cluster of twelve colonies rotating in space a few dozen kilometers away from each other in either direction of Arden colony. Aliasse then pressed another button and a green hud like display appeared showing and highlighting all the other hundreds of shuttles and ships around her.

Most were civilian transport craft, others cargo haulers, and largest were the UNSC military ships of their many varying types and classes from patrolling Longswords to Vanguard class cruisers and everything in between.

One of the other colonies at the same lagrange point as Arden is a UNSC military base. A whole colony serving as a base and space dock to a fleet of ships and tens of thousands of UNSC personnel. The United Nations in UNSC pertains to the united space colonies and planets of the Terran controlled space much like the united states of america. Each one with their own local government like an independent nation but all united as a collective.

Aliasse reclined her chair and told the shuttles AI to play some music and as it started she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep to enjoy the rest of her trip.

Three hours later the Sleipnir shuttle docked at the low orbital station at the orbital elevators 10,000 kilometer point which also connected to the lowest geostationary ring that was directly over the Earths equator and connects all three orbital elevators together as one giant megastructure. Such a ring has multiple purposes one being a stabilizing structure for the three orbital towers. Second being a massive platform for solar panels that collect massive amounts of solar energy and send it by electromagnetic beam array it to the cities on Earth or even to the network of orbiting satellites. And the third purpose is as a platform for the defensive orbital laser cannon arrays powered by the solar panels. These weapons are meant to defend Earth from any planet killer comets or from orbital attack along with the other super Mac defense satellites orbiting around the Earth above or below the equator where the three orbital elevators and the orbital ring were.

Aliasse spent little time on the low orbital station other then to pick up a few snacks at this one store she likes, then it was a short trip down the orbital elevator and a plane ride to New York. Aliasse could have had her private shuttle just enter the Earths atmosphere and land directly at the New York space port but she wasn't in a hurry and she really liked the glazed caramel filled chocolate donuts from that shop.

Five hours after starting her journey Aliasse,s plane arrived at the big apple that was New York.

However the city and the surrounding areas have been through major reconstruction ever since the early twenty first century. Humanity now collectively calling itself Terrans ever since there was a major philosophical debate over true gender equality that was linked to the 'man' wording in humanity and also the dispute over the name of the political and government system of the colonies across the Sol and Epsilon Eridani star systems which was... mostly about the actually name of the human controlled space which was previously called the UEG or United Earth Government. But after someone thought that name was offending and or inaccurate to the people on the colonies and Reach it was changed to the United Terran Government which includes all of human or Terran people as a collective with no disparity between gender or where a Terran lives, be it on Earth, Reach or any of the many space colonies in both Sol or the Epsilon Eridani star systems.

As her plane descended to JFK International Airport, Aliasse looked out the window observing the city below.

The shining white towers of manhattan island split in the middle by that great green patch that was central park and surrounded by the new forests around it including the forest on long island. The forests to Manhattan's west were dotted by a few dozen one mile wide skyscraper clusters that radiated farther westward from Manhattan island in five semi circles and separated by a few miles of forest. Each of these mini cities were connected by elevated overpasses that weaved between the treetops and dozens of underground subways. Each mini-city was separated from the forest by a ring shaped ten story high building standing around them to divide the Terran urban centers from the surrounding forest like a wall.

The newly grown forests (Well a few hundred years old by this point but still young by a trees standards) also had their fare share of footpaths and rest stops between each mini-city which allowed people to walk among the new forest that was allowed to return after it was mostly cut down in the preceding centuries. The people enjoyed the walks through the forest and the occasional encounter with animals of all kinds from deer to squirrels to butterflies and all kind of birds that called the forest home even if it is right beside a major city or rather intermingled with it as both nature and the Terran's cities sharing the same space without one being pushed out or harmed by the other.

In the previous centuries many forests were cut down and replaced by a urban sprawling landscape of concrete, houses, factories and buildings of varying purposes, but now in the late twenty second century the forests that humanity had cut down have been allowed to grow back with many of them replanted by Terrans themselves and the animals returned to them as Terrans have learned to live in true harmony with nature as many cities on Earth and Reach have been built to be as space efficient and less disrupting to nature as possible. Many cities are also built underground, floating on the oceans surface or placed at the bottom of the ocean and there's even a few small floating cities in the skies, kept aloft by the gravity repulsion drives (which were reversed engineered from Protoss tech) that were used in lifting large or massive objects off or lowering them onto a planet's surface like the many civilian cargo, transport or military ships that leave Earth Mars and Reaches surface daily. Even the orbital elevators use the gravity repulsion drives to keep themselves aloft and to lessen the strain of their own weight.

After leaving the airport Aliasse took a taxi into the hussle and bussle of the city that never sleeps and after a few minutes going through traffic, arrived at the base of a very tall building in downtown Manhattan. The taxis lone occupant a silver hair and scarlet eyed woman exited the vehicle and paid the human driver. Humans driving taxi's maybe a odd thing in other places as most drive themselves but in the current era humans driving taxis has become something of a tradiction in New York much like the Gondola's in Venice that are driven by gondoliers but at one point someone tried using androids but after much dispute about the job being a tradition the practice was returned to a human only job.

"Huh so this is their HQ," Aliasse mumbled as she looked upwards to the odd building that was NeoCortex,s HQ.

The NeoCortex HQ building had a giant sphere at its base with a eight sided octagon tower extending out of it that split into eight outward facing points at its top floor with another sphere placed in between them.

Aliasse entered through the rotating doors and stopped at the front counter where she asked clerk on what floor the CEO's office was and showed him the ID security key.

After the security key was confirmed the clerk said he was expecting her and said the CEO's office was at the top floor of the building located in that sphere.

Aliasse thanked the man and proceeded to the nearby express elevator to the top floor. Elevators of the current area are maglev based and can go straight to the top of a building, but most elevator shafts have two elevators in them to take more people up and down more efficiently with each elevator having its own... territory one could say only moving between designated floors. But the express elevator Aliasse took was a straight shot to the top of the building without needing to switch to another elevator.

The elevator dinged as the doors parted and Aliasse stepped out into a large curved circular hallway that looked like it went around the CEO's office. A moment later a android in a nurses uniform walked up to Aliasse and bowed. Unlike most other androids that are made to look Terran this one was clearly a android with white skin and dark lines around the joints and edges of her face.

"Miss Aliasse please follow me," the nurse droid said flatly.

Aliasse followed the android nurse through the curved hallway and into the sphere shaped part of the building. Inside there was a garden with a dome skylight and platform in the center that had what looked like a normal looking house?! on it.

Aliasse blinked at the improbable house that was in a skyscraper over a thousand feet above the ground before continuing to follow the android nurse into the main room of the house.

"Please wait here while I inform my master her guest is here," the android nurse said flatly before going up the stares to the second floor.

Aliasse took the moment to look around at the house and all the family and landscape pictures along the walls and the white flowered vase on the table set between two couches in the middle of the room.

"Well this is new. I've heard of working at home but not having your home at your place of work," Aliasse noted to herself as she sat on one of the couch's. A few moments later the android nurse and a aged woman with gray hair and faded green eyes who looked in her late 60's came down the staircase.

"Thank you rose please go and fix a pot of tea please," the old woman who must be the CEO of NeoCortex said as she sat down on the opposing couch from Aliasse, her hands on top the other on her lap as the two looked into each others eyes a moment.

"Um your the one who wanted to see me?," Aliasse asked studying the woman.

"Yes," the old woman said tilting her head a bit with her reply.

"So what was it you wanted to talk to me about? " Aliasse asked as the old woman continued to look at her like she was expecting Aliasse to realize something. Aliasse continued to eye the woman and something clicked and Aliasse felt that she knew this woman from... somewhere but couldn't put her finger on it.

"Who are you?"

The elderly woman shrugged. "You tell me, we met a few times before a long time ago... after the first Zerg war."

Aliasse narrowed her eyes and thought harder of where she could have met her before and then it clicked. "Ellen!?" Aliasse exclaimed incredulously as the nurse android returned and placed a plate with a pot of tea and two cups on it on the table between the two couch's and poured a little of the fragrant tea into the cups.

"Thank you Rosa you may tend to the garden now. I think the Irises need some attention today."

Silently Rosa bowed and left out the front door and old woman Ellen took a sip of her tea with Aliasse still staring intently at her waiting for a answer.

"To be explain, I am the real Ellen's first clone." The self confessed clone of Ellen Reid explained as she put the cup down on its plate. "I'm the clone of Ellen Reid she created to fill in her place with her family all those years ago." Aliasse was now showing a face that was going through the reason's how this clone of Ellen the swarm empress was still alive. "Oh don't give me that look im alive because i'm a certified genius with a IQ of over 200 and perfect eidetic memory, thanks to the other Ellen's evolution master Abastein playing around with my head. But to explain further, after I spent decades helping to build up humanities fleet of ground to space shuttles and the next gen space stations along with the first Moon and Mars base's. I changed the direction of my research to myself and decided to extend my lifespan using genetic augmentations that repaired my cells and genetic information. It isn't perfect and I require to go through the regeneration treatment every few decades and I change my identity when I do so."

Aliasse sighed taking her tea cup in hand and took a sip smiling at the pleasant taste. "So why did you call me here?."

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **Meanwhile back in Psyons private universe.**

Psyon blinked his eyes ending his current observation of the events in the other universe and now only saw the infinite sky of his own universe as a gas giant passed in front of a nearby star.

"Hmm interesting... I think it's time I paid Noobzilla a visit."

Psyon then leaped off his floating fantasy airship and fell down towards the black thunder clouds a unknown distance below and disappeared through a fold in space.

* * *

"Wait? what? I didn't write this! he's going where!..." Noobzilla exclaimed as he found these words on his fanfiction's latest chapter after proof reading it and no matter what he did the words wouldn't disappear so he had to post it as is.


	13. Chapter 13

**Dimension** Underverse version of Prime reality 0.

 **Location** Earth

 **Noobzillas home** 8:00 PM

* * *

 **Late in the evening the sound of keyboard typing and youtube music played in** **Noobzillas** **beadroom as he finished proofreading and polishing chapter 12 of arc two of his fanfic story, The Zerg Swarm Empress. Upon completion he noticed a odd sentence on the bottom of the chapter page he didn't write and tried to delete them but it didn't work for some reason so he had to post the chapter as is.**

 **"Annnd done. Huh? I wonder what was up with that sentence at the end of the last chapter? I hope i'm not being trolled by some hacker asshole online."**

 **"Actually." a voice sounded from out of nowhere scaring the ever living shit out of Noobzilla and making him and his chair fall backwards in a clatter and land in a undignified position on the floor.**

 **"Uuugh what?!" Noobzilla exclaimed as he stared at the ceiling a moment** **.**

 **"That was me," Psyon finished as he tilted his head at the floor bound Noobzilla.**

 **Noobzilla from his position on the floor looked up (or across his room) to see of all people Psyon exactly as he imagined looking back at him.**

 **"Are you going to get up? or just lay there with that dumb look on your face?" Psyon asked as Noobzilla took another few moments to blink before calmly getting up and standing his chair up right. Noobzilla stared at Psyon and Psyon stared at Noobzilla.**

 **"What... the ever living #uck... are you doing here?" Noobzilla said in a mostly calm voice that had a tone of curiosity and WTF is going on written on it.**

 **"Glad you asked," Psyon replied. "I do suppose a explanation is in order. I decided to come see you after I saw that your not a one hit wonder with your stories second arch. Granted your stories first arch was good but it could have used a few more chapters. Maybe a space battle between the humans and Ellen's Zerg or maybe the humans getting more from the Protoss tech other then just antigravity drives. And maybe a rewriting to improve the wording."**

 **Noobzilla stared blankly at Psyon before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose."Ok... so your here to gave me what? critic on my story. And if your here I suppose my theory about the Fractal-verse is correct."**

 **Psyon shrugged. "Mostally. Your correct in thinking universes split into two... mostly identical copies like biological cells when ever a interdimensional traveler like me crosses into them as a defense response to maintain the original date of that universe as per the law of conservation of information and create new possibilities. The first universe, the [Over-verse] is identical to the original in all respects while the second universe the [Under-verse] containe's, or quarantines you could say, the interdimensional traveler and all the possibilities of what they'll do in that universe. But there are a few places where you missed the mark. For onething multiverses also behave like this, like say the Rick and Morty universe."**

 **"Oh hell here we go," Noobzilla sighed as he face palmed but continued to listen.**

 **"The Rick and Morty multiverse itself has around... 88 trillion different parallel dimensions. But the Rick and Morty multiverse is partitioned off and separated from all others by a multiverse scale dividing barrier that is also apart of the system of reality that protects the innate possibilities of each multiverse from the shenanigans of dimension hoppers like Rick. And when someone crosses into such a multiverse it also divides into a unaffected Over-multiverse and a Under-multiverse that holds the interdimensional traveler. And second, universes and multiverses all have the ability to recognize if a interdimensional traveler is from them or another dimension by the quantum reality frequency or QRF of their souls and material bodies which is unique to each and every universe or multiverse and everything in them.**

 **If their QRF is liken to their biometric and DNA date, then their karma is like the ID and history which is the sum of a their actions in their past and present states of being. What all that means is if some ones QRF and Karma are are incorrect then the universe will split into the aforementioned Over and Under-verses. A few interesting facts too is that a universe or multiverse that a person has traveled too will recognise that person via the karma they generate by being there and will always resynchronize with that person when they try to return to that type of universe."**

 **Noobzilla tilted his head in thought. "Huh, so if a dimension hopper goes to... let's say... the Starwars universe and then to the Battlestar galactica universe and back again the underverse version of those universes will recognise them so no matter what and they'll always return to the underverse version of those universes they first created when they dimension hopped, and not to the Over-verse version which would constantly create new Under-verses."**

 **Psyon nodded. "Correct. And if a dimension hopper travels to more than one dimension all the different universes they traveled to will be synchronised and connected by Karma into a multiverse by themselves and create a quarantined multiverse for the dimension hopper. Another fun fact too, if someone from a universe, let's say SG1 from the Stargate universe (not the stargate universe series) using the Quantum Mirror or any other method known in their universes canon, travels to a alternate version of their own universe, it will not cause the universe to split into a Over and Under-verse but will simply create a alternate timeline."**

 **Noobzilla shrugged. "Ok so my theory is... mostly correct. I guess there's a version of me in the Over-verse original of my universe then."**

 **"Correct. And more than likely that version of you is aware of us meeting and has integrated it into his version of his fanfic story as some 4th wall braking thing where they explain how the Fractal-verse works."**

 **Noobzilla crossed his arms,"Hmmm so I should fully explain the Fractal-verse thing then huh."**

 **Psyon nodded as Noobzilla began his full explanation of the fractal-verse.**

 **"Ok so on the internet there are other versions and theories about the universe and multiverses out there like the Omniverse and that 'other' Fractelverse and the Archverse's. But here's the thing they don't account for time and interdimensional travelers that generate more possibilities in the form of alternate timelines and under-verses that are alternate versions of the original universe and multiverses that allow the universe to both remain the same and change dew to the aforementioned interdimensional and time travelers.**

 **You see My (updated) idea of reality is that its a possibility generator that pumps out all kinds of information in the form of alternate (time travel) and parallel (different dimensions) universes that are based on differing decisions, limitations and freedoms of each and everyone and thing in that universe and multiverse, like physics for example or how certain parallel universes like the Marvel and DC multi-verses allows for super powers while others like the stargate SG1 or Battlestar galactica universes allow such only to a limited extent, or not at all.**

 **But there are always possibilities and impossibilities and that's where beings like Psyon come in. You see their purpose is to basically act like fanfiction writers, except real, and what they do creates entirely new universes and multiverses. They create under-verses and change or alter events in a universe or multiverse in a way that's not not normally possible due to the way the universes physics and or people are, which will always be limited to a extent based on their personalities, abilities where their born, what they do with their life's and who they are as a person and or the group their with. This generates new possibilities and universes and multiverses growing reality like a growing lifeform although its a form of life based on possibilities and information and not matter or energy like we understand."**

 **Psyon smiled a bit at Noobzillas explanation. "I believe that's a good explanation of the fractal-verse. But to explain more about my... people as you could refer to them as. Is that were reality splicers taking certain types of information and re a ranging it into new and varied forms that can not occur on their own. We can also create new universes from the date of others which is how I created Ellen's universe."**

 **Noobzilla raised a eye brow. "Hmm so I guess self awareness is a requirement for doing your job."**

 **Psyon nodded. "Yes. Only self aware beings have a real grasp of creativity. Also fun fact, self aware beings can link with the fractal possibility field or FPF that contains all information in the fractal-verse and that's where your idea for Ellen's universe and the story your writing came from. From your perspective anyway. There are a few distinctive types of thoughts the brains of sentient being can generate. One is thoughts concerning one's self. Two. Thoughts of others like your loved ones. Three. Thoughts concerning survival and the surrounding environment or work. And lastly thoughts of possibilities that most call their imagination. And it is these that link a person to the FPF which is connected any and all universes and multiverses in the Fractal-verse together.**

 **Noobzilla tilted his head in thought. "So it's like a internet of sorts that allows people to have a glimpse into other universes in the Fractal-verse to a limited degree. But in reality its them seeing actual possibilities that exist out there in the Fratal-verse"**

 **"Correct. I created Ellen's combination universe and you observed it through your connection with the Fractal possibility field that connected to your imagination. Also Noobzilla. I'll be addressing you by your fanfiction site name. My people can make normal beings like you into one of us just so you know."**

 **Noobzilla shrugged, shaking his head. "Uh no thanks if that's what your asking. Im a little to invested in my current life thank you very much."**

 **Psyon shrugged. "Of course. Not right now anyway. And also since we're here how about going to another reality for some fun. Your choice."**

 **"Uhh is it going to be like Dr. who where you get me back just a few seconds after we leave?"**

 **"Yes. Time is relative and not connected between differing universes, except certain multiverses. You'll be getting back just thirty seconds after we leave," Psyon answered.**

 **"Well then lets go tooooo Dark Souls 1."**

 **"Hmm really. There?"**

 **Noobzilla huffed as he shook his head. "Hey you said my choice. If we're going to go on a interdimensional adventure I would like like to start some place I know. And also we are NOT, being all pacifist and running around from danger like Dr. Who and his companions."**

 **"Agreed. Violence is more entertaining in proper amounts. So should I make the version of Dark Souls normal or find, or create a version that's more realistic."**

 **Noobzilla though a moment. "I've always wanted to create my own magic and have custom armor and weapons forged and run through that city that's visible from Fire link shrine. Oh and some of the areas could be a bit larger, and the enemies HAVE to be able to think about combat tactics. Well enemies that aren't brain dead hollows or beasts anyway."**

 **Psyon looked off into the distance."Ok then a version not limited by game mechanics. ...found one that matches your description,"**

 **Psyon said as he opened a gateway in space. The edges of which looked like a constantly folding ring of space that's folding into itself with a image in the middle.**

 **Noobzilla looked into the opening in space that showed the inside of the starting room of Dark Souls 1. The** **Northern Undead Asylum** **.**

 **"This is going to be good. Or very bad. Either way it should be fun at least."**

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

 **Spartans Rising Part 2**

 **Location,** Earth. NeoCortex HQ. Top floor

 **CEO's private house**

"Successor," Aliasse repeated.

"Yes"Ellen Reid replied. "I have decided to stop having my regeneration treatment and live out the remainder of my life however long thats is. And before I go I would like to have someone like you to take my place leading NeoCortex and continue my work."

Aliasse looked a little confused and overwhelmed at the request. "Don't you have more qualified people already in your company?" she asked.

"Yes. I have a few others in mind. But since the project I was planning on putting you on is partly based on psionics, I decided that you would be a perfect choice for that. And also there's the fact that your the only one besides me who's lived since the first Zerg war and has centuries worth of experience. And unlike me you have extensive experience in fighting Zerg. And even the original Ellen."

Aliassa hummed to herself and took another sip of her tea. "Well when you put it that way... I suppose I could consider the offer."

Ellen Reid took a sip of her tea and smiled. "Please take your time. It's a big decision to make, there's no need to rush."

Aliasse and the first clone of Ellen continued talking for a bit until their tea ran out. After word Aliasse left and walked the streets of New York to clear her head and think the offer over. Aliasse walked along Manhattan islands eastern waterfront, between a dozen rounded skyscrapers each with multiple levels of green gardens on extended terraces. Two rows of such towers on the eastern side and two more rows on the west side of the Manhattan island with many more buildings and skyscrapers between them including central park.

After a walking from one end of Manhattan island to the other Aliasse took a elevated monorail around the city enjoying the sights as she continued thinking over Ellen or rather clone Ellen's proposal. Many things had changed concerning city planning and architecture in the last two hundred plus years as every city now has multi-leveled monorails running along the buildings lower sides and above the streets. Cities on both Reach and Earth's also have garden balconies for both private use and public use and some are shaped like bridges connecting between two buildings.

All the skyscrapers running along the cities east and western water fronts are all connected by such bridge garden structures and even the bridges into and out of Manhattan island have been replaced by such new architecture, with the exception of the Brooklyn bridge which was designated a historical landmark and was meticulously dismantled and each part of the bridge was reinforced with new nanomaterials and then rebuilt with new extended garden bridges on both sides like all the other bridges connecting Manhattan island to the mainland and long island, which was now a forest with high priced mansions for the richer people who make more than most.

The economic system of the modern Terran civilization is also more balanced than in previous eras as all working citizens including members of corporations and governments have to pay 2% to 5% tax out of their yearly salary which is more for richer people because they make more than people that are paid less but everyone still pays just 2% to 5% of what they make.

There has also been a maximum limit placed to how much money someone can hold in their personal bank accounts and how many accounts a citizen can have, which rounds about to ten million credits which are the replacement to old types of currency like the U.S. dollar. The disparity between the rich and poor is also a thing of the past thanks to these changes including that everyone also has a upper and lower limit to how much their paid. Everyone is still paid according to their quality of work and skills in their area of expertise and the value that society places on such skills and work but the difference between the paychecks of the most paid and least paid is much closer together and regulated then in the 21st century.

Back then many people's paychecks in the poorest countries were less then a few dollars a day and in the richest countries other people were paid many millions if not hundreds of millions a day.

In the modern era such disparity between peoples financial income is not allowed and partly controlled by taxes on the richest people. The taxed money goes into the public service's departments and pays for many things that aid the global community like maintaining infrastructure and paying for public service workers work some of which is finding jobs for the homeless (What few there are now a days) or help them to be at least self sufficient or move to another place where it will be easier for them to make a living for themselves or their family and some of those places are tree house communities. Many people all over Earth and Reach that don't want to live in a city often live in these giant self sufficient communal treehouse towns that first started back in the mid 21st century when there were major strives were being made to reduce the impact of human civilization and technology on the natural environment which resulted in some one having the idea to just make tree house towns that use the new cheaper and more advanced solar panel tech that was recently developed and to make them self sufficient in growing their own food and purifying and holding their own water supply.

There are also many safeguards, laws and agencies in place to keep the new economic system from being abused and circumvented by greedy people wanting more money or criminals that out right ignored the laws of Terran society.

Aliasse stepped off the monorail train onto the third upper level of the monorail terminal, looking up through the glass roof as the sky was darkened by a blanket of black clouds. On a nearby public announcement screen a weather chart was displayed showing the weather for the next few days, which showed today would have a rain forecast for tonight.

"Huh. Its been a long time since I saw rain, real rain... it feels odd. Guess that's the price for living in space colonies for a long time," Aliasse mused as she walked down the winding steps of the platforms stareway to street level. Aliasse continued to walk through the city enjoying herself with a meal from a restaurant or candy store she would pass by as she walked through the city. Eventually the sun dropped below the horizon creating a even deeper darkness and prompting the street lights to illuminate the city streets as the rain started to fall. Aliasse eventually found herself back at the JFK international airport where she took a flight back to her home country of Gallia where she returned to her old family cabin in the Barious forest.

After having taken the long rough and winding road through the deep forest Aliasse arrived at her destination and exited the 4x4 truck she had rented and sighed looking upon the old cabin where she lived long ago with her uncle. "Home sweet home," Aliasse said with a feeling of nostalgia as she walked onto the porch and dug the key out from the hollowed out wall segment beside the front door.

Aliasse unlocked the door and stepped inside the home she had not been to for a few decades. Aliasse had paid cleaners to come by every few months to clean the house and make repairs as needed which was the explanation for the good condition the house was in. All the furniture was new and clean without much dust on them. Aliasse simply marched up stairs where she laid down for the first time in a long time in her own bed.

The next morning Aliasse got up and stretched out a little before changing clothes and making herself some morning breakfast and after word cleaned the dishes. After that she put her boots on and walked out onto the front porch, seeing the forest bathed in the morning sunlight which beaming through the trees.

"Guess I could give that place a look. But first."

Aliasse walked around the cabin to a patch of open land a few hundred feet away where a group of grave stone's were surrounded by a bed of wild flowers. Aliasse read all the time worn gravestones of her family until reaching one in particular. Aliasse stopped and read the inscription.

 **{ Here lays Kurt Irving, Son, Brother, Uncle, loyal soldier of Gallia. Born 1975 Died 2034.}**

Aliasse stared at the gravestone of her uncle for a few moments before paying her respects and talked a little too the gravestone like she had often done many time's before.

After words Aliasse hiked through the woods to the old Valkyrur ruines where the spiral doors opened and she entered the tomb like underground structure. It was the same every time she entered the place. The walls glyph's felt like they were wanting to say something but Aliasse couldn't understand or hear their words and she continued on into the the giant room with the stone pictures depicting events that have or will happen.

[Deep sigh] "I wonder who you two are," Aliasse asked the air as she looked upon the largest stone carving depicting two figures, one smaller with black armor and purple wings, and the other a giant holding a galaxy colored in white and gold. Aliasse then looked at the lower left part of the stone carving which showed seven rings with one being destroyed. It didn't click at first but after a few moments of staring at it Aliasse remembered a video game from a long time ago called Halo from her childhood. Aliasse got a dumbfounded look on her face as she face palmed wondering why she hadn't realised the connection before and was reminded of what Ellen had said on Reach under Menachite mountain concerning the fact that their universe may in fact have been created by some god like being or something along those lines. It also then clicked in Aliasse,s mind that the UNSC from the game Halo is the same, well nearly the same as the UNSC that exists now in the real world.

"Uhh fuck, Ellen was right all this time."Aliasse exclaimed as she pinched the bridge of her nose a moment. "Why didn't I remember that video game Halo and make the connection until now... well a lot of shit did happen," Aliasse sighed as she remembered that at the time her parents had died and she had awoken to her Valkyrur powers and then the war happened," Aliasse remembered with a regretful sigh. "And it had been a few hundred years since I had played that game." Aliasse took a moment to think things through before moving down a few tunnels and taking a few turns and entered into a onto another chamber. One that looked just like the dome chamber underneath Castle Randgriz in the capital of Gallia. In this chamber Aliasse found a stone table where she had laid her Valkyrur lance and shield to rest many long years ago.

"Hmm" the Valkyrur humed to herself as she looked at the Valkyrur lance and shield she used since long ago while the other lance and shield pair first used by Alicia was given to the Gallian Royal family to keep safe. With the nostalgia of someone who has lived a long life longing to return to her younger days Aliasse remembered her past and friends she had made back then. Her uncle Kurt, her teacher Alicia, her friend and second teacher Zerion, and her best friend Princess Lily. Aliasse was about to add Ellen to the list but remembered all the billions of lives her swarm took in the war back then.

"Ellen why do you have to be so... ah... you," Aliasse sighed in frustration realising Ellen in her own way was helping humanity as twisted as it was.

"Huh! that's right the Covenant," Aliasse exclaimed as she remembered the main enemy in the Game Halo along with the other enemy the Flood.

"Did Ellen really anticipate them being real?!" Aliasse exclaimed to her selfe again as she looked at her lance and shield resting a hand on each them.

"If they are real I can't stand around here doing nothing," Aliasse said to herself.

Aliasse took both her lance and shield in hand before returning to her cabin and placing her Valkyrur arms into a large suitcase and reserved a private plane to pick her up at the nearest airport.

A little over two hours later she had arrived back at NeoCortex HQ and a short time after was sitting in the house of Ellen Reid or her clone at least, but she had more than earned the name for herself by this point.

"Miss Aliasse i'm glad to see you again," Ellen Reid plesantley said as Aliasse entered her private study on the second floor of her house. Even though she had known Aliasse was coming ever since she entered the building.

To the left the wall was covered in bookshelves holding hundreds of books in a dozen different languages, while the right hand wall had many pictures of differing sizes depicting landscapes from Earth, Reach and Mars. And in the left corner of the room by the front door was a large antique globe of Earth and a table with two old looking wood and leather chairs. Ellen Reid's desk was in front of the large ten foot wide window in the back.

Aliasse stopped in front of the desk and placed her two suitcases down. "Miss Reid, i've returned. And decided to take you up on your offer."

Ellen Reid smiled as she clasped her hand together. "That's good to here. I suppose you want to be briefed on what it is we do here at NeoCortex?"

"I've already read up most of your companies history, business model and practices as well as your products and research projects. But I assume that those are just your publicly acknowledged projects. There's bound to be some classified tech and research your doing that's either illegal or controversial."

Ellen Reid's face developed a tiny smile. "Your quite right. And the project in question that im putting you in charge of as the new chief operations officer is quite controversial indeed. I'll give you the security date key you need to enter the space station where were conducting project Simulant in, as well as a list of files on the projects lead engineers and scientists as well as the station its being developed on."

Aliasse tilted her head a little. "Project simulant?" Aliasse asked as Ellen Reids hand danced across her neon green keyboard.

"I don't want to spoil the surprise but I will say that it's a... special... weapons project," Ellen Reid said as she pulled a usb drive out of a socket on the desk and handed it to Aliasse.

"Ok so where is the facility this project simulant is at?" Aliasse asked as she installed the new security date key and other information into her neural implant at the back of her head and then handed the usb drive back to Ellen Reid.

"It's location is New Horizon station at lagrange 3."

The red eyes of the Valkyrur Aliasse widened in mild shocked. "New Horizon station! That's where the last facility built by the Horizon company was until the company went belly up from ONI's smear campaign."

Ellen Reid nodded. "Yes. It was... is a incomplete project to create a large scale space colony that would serve as a major space habitation for humans and a experiment in creating a real space bound ecosystem at L3. But after ONI discovered the truth about the Horizon companies involvement with the Zerg swarm during the battle of Reach early this century, they started developing and supporting other corporations from the shadows as replacement's for Horizon and its technological monopoly within the private sector."

Aliasse scoffed shrugging. "And then they ruined Horizons public image with that celebrity clone sex slave scandal that ended in the company dissolving. It would have hurt the Colony Class Builder Ships development time if your company hadn't already been a major partner on the project with Horizon."

"Yes it would have. But we managed to complete the CCBS project without their continued support at the time," Ellen Reid replied as she looked forlorn. "I suppose it was Horizons time to go."

Aliasse sighed looking Ellen in the eyes. "I suppose you were aware of ONI's intentions. But I guess that doesn't matter. I've already decided to join you so I guess i'll dig up your skeletons eventually."

Ellen Reid looked up to Aliasse and smiled. "Well I do intend to hand the rains of this company and my skeletons over to you when i'm no longer able to handle it. Anyway I'll be heading out now," Aliasse said as she picked up her two suitcases and left leaving Ellen Reid to continue her work.

After departing the NeoCortex HQ, Aliasse traveled back up the orbital elevator No.3 and took her private shuttle to a privately owned ship in Lunar orbit called the Swan. Named for its white and black coloration that was from the favorite animal of one of its owners. It was a mom and pop shuttle refueling and maintenance ship that was somewhat common across the solar system, as they normally do custom work on private craft at a cheaper price than at normal space stations who also have more oversight from the government. Servicing ships like this one also does custom work on ships and other craft and also builds other things on the side that are sometimes... less than legal.

Aliasse,s shuttle approached the Swan. It's length about 200 meters and with a round cylinder shaped main body in the middle which housed a industrial grade 3d molecular printer system with a spinning habitation ring rotating around it. The front and rear of the ship were flattened into a wide blocky horizontal rectangle shaped hull with the main engine's in back and the main docking bay in the forward nose and a smaller secondary docking bay at the rear set below and between the main engines.

Aliasse,s shuttle landed in the forward hangar and the artificial gravity (a by product created from research into the anti gravity tech) kicked in as the hanger airlocks closed and were secure. Aliasse exited her shuttle and walked across the hangar deck to meet a man approaching her in a orange engineers jumpsuit whom she had become acquainted with during the later part of her years as the private detective Miss shadow.

"Ah miss Shadow it's so nice to see you again. What can I do for you today?" asked a young man of French descent in his mid-20s named Yann Aric. Yann being one of if the only people that knows the true identity of Miss shadow as Aliasse.

"It good to see you too Yann but i'm going by Aliasse these days," Aliasse replied shaking the mans dirty hand who was worn from years of hard work on all kinds of mechina's from private shuttles like Aliasse,s to exosuits used in construction or even the military.

"Ahh. So what do you need done today then?" Yann asked switching into his professional mode as Aliasse abruptly punched him in the arm hard. "Ooh ah that hurt what,s wrong with you," Yann asked rubbing his brushed arm.

"Oh that was for the military grade exo suit you worked on THAT NEARLY KILLED ME!" Aliasse accused crossing her arms with a unamused expression.

Yann blinked as he thought over all the jobs he had done recently. "Huh? exosuit... well... I did do a job like that for a customer a month back. But what does that have to do with you?"

Aliasse sighed. "I know it was you who built it... or supplied it. Your the only one in the whole star system that paints your custom products that swan black and white."

"Ahhh. Ok first of all sorry if someone using one of my products tried to kill you. But I have no control over how my customer's use them. And second, did you just come here to punch me or do you have actual business with me?."

"Yes I do have real business with you Yann. I need one of your shuttle boosters to get where I need to go and fast."

"Huh your the only one I know of that uses those things on a class 4 shuttle. Good thing you had me give her a extra layer of reinforcing otherwise your little shuttle would pull itself apart by the stress forces."

"Anyway do you have one on hand or do I have to wait around for you to build one?"

"Yeah I got one. You want me to strap it on right now or do you have another job for me?"

Aliasse crossed her arms. "No just the booster. There's some place far away I need to get to without relying on the public transport ships."

"Ok got it. Hey just saying but while I get that done with could... you... maybe talk with Dawn. Shes been... upset lately," Yann said acting nervous.

Aliasse tilted her head raising a eyebrow. "What did you do now?"

Yann held up his hands defensively. "Nothing, nothing it's just... shes a little irritable what with the baby on the way."

Aliasse sighed dropping her head down and then looking back to Yann. "Ok. But only because were friends got it," Aliasse replied as she walked off to the airlock door leading to the inner areas of the ship.

Aliasse walked the hallways of the ship making a few turns and going up a short elevator ride to the office room in the habitation ring where Miss Aric was busy doing the paperwork needed to run the family business. Outside the display screen was a breathtaking view of the moon.

"Hello Dawn long time no see," Aliasse said as she caught sight of the french woman behind the desk typing away on the touch sensitive screen keyboard in her desk.

"Huh? Aliasse! ah good to see you," Dawn Aric said as she stood up to shake her friend's hand revealing her enlarged belly carrying her and Yann's child.

"Good to see you to. I heard that you were having a bad day and needed a talk," Aliasse said as Dawn expression changed to one of frustration.

Dawn sighed sitting back down gently with her enlarged belly carrying the new life in her. "Yes I am quite frustrated and worried."

"Want to tell me about it," Aliasse asked.

"Yeah sure. It's two things actually. One my husband keeps doing those illegal jobs and second... were kind of in a financial corner."

"I thought you were doing great with the business given the traffic to and from the outer system and peoples custom orders?"

Dawn sighed. "We were... before but we had to make another payment on the loan we took for the parts and equipment we used to build this ship and start up our business."

"Was the payment really that big?"

Dawn sighed. "Yes... yes it was. Paying it off nearly bankrupted us, but we got some last minute orders that pulled us out of the deepwater. For the most part."

"Need me to give you some money?"

"Oh, no, no, no we couldn't possibly ask that of you," Dawn stammered guestering her hands side to side in front of her.

Aliasse sighed and slouched a little before standing straight again. "Dawn. Im the one saying i'll give you money and you won't have to worry about paying me back. It's the least I can do after all the help the two of you gave me over the years."

"Bu... but you already payed for that work and besides we can't rely on you to pull our butts out of the money pit whenever we have trouble."

"That's a reasonable way of thinking. So how's about this. I become a investor of your business."

Dawn looked part happy and confused at Aliasse,s proposal. "Uh... well me and Yann would have to talk it over and-"

"Great so you'll take me as a new investor in your business then," Aliasse said cutting Dawn off.

"Uh... ok this is a bit shudden. Way are you so hell bent on helping us any way if you don't mind me asking?"

Aliasse shrugged. "Guess I can't help but feel like helping a new family out. Besides we need to get ready to put that little tyke into college."

Dawn tilted her head a little with a look of confusion. "Is everything ok miss Aliasse your acting... odd?"

Aliasse stared back at Dawn with a with a fake smile on her face before sighing and feeling embarrassed. "Uhh... well... I guess I get like this when I'm around babies... even pregnant women. I,ve never had a family myself and over the... years... i've seen many families and children and I guess it gets to me a little."

After this explanation Dawn broke into a laughing fit which lasted a full 20 seconds.

"Ha hahahahaha, ah ha ah uh ah, miss Aliasse you so young and beautiful I don't think you'd have much trouble finding a man if you tried to start a family. And to be honest, I'm a little jealous of that beautiful silver hair of yours."

Aliasse slouched and sighed again. "Well... I guess your right. But I don't think starting a family right now is the best idea at the moment. I'm kind of in the middle of starting a new career at the moment."

"I understand... uh miss Aliasse if I may ask what do you do to keep looking so young?"

"Huh? wa... what do you mean?" Aliasse replied feeling a little nervous.

"Well it's just we've known each other for about five years now and you still look 20. Are you really not a cyborg or do you have artificial skin that doesn't show your age?"

Aliasse blinked and crossed her arms turning her head up at the accusation. "Im am 100% natural human with no artificial body parts other then my neural implant thank you very much."

"Oh sorry I didn't mean anything by that. It's just... you look the same as when we first met and well... i've gotten a few little wrinkles here and there already."

Aliasse looked away with a downcast face and was about to turn back to Dawn and say something when Yann's voice sounded over the intercom unit on Dawns desk.

~Boosters secured and ready for launch miss Aliasse.~

Dawn pressed a button on the intercom unit. "Honey we have business to discuss with miss Aliasse. Could you come her please."

~Uh ok. Be there in a minute.~

"While he's on his way let's get the payment done with. Those boosters aren't cheap yeah know," Dawn said.

"Ok," Aliasse replied as she payed for the booster attachment to her shuttle.

Shortly after Yann arrived and the three of them talked over the investment idea for a good hour getting the details of the fine print over and done with before Aliasse signed on the document that held the debt mister and misses Aric own the lone company for the money they used to start up their business. The extra money was a great boon to the husband and wife engineers who now had the money to buy new equipment like a few extra 3D molecular printers that would allow them to expand their business. The extra money would also allow the Aric family to hire some workers to help around with the heavy lifting out in the hanger and paper work in the office.

After the slight detour Aliasse shuttle made final checks with the connection to the booster unit and launched out the Swans forward hanger deck. The booster was attached to the shuttles midsection and rear and extended the shuttles length by double. The booster unit was basically a fusion reactor and four miniature fusion drives that gave the small shuttle craft a massive speed boost that would shave off days and weeks from a intersolar journey like the one Aliasse was undertaking now, which would take her to the New Horizon station at L3 which was literally other side of the solar system from the Earth.

Normally such a trip would take too long for a small shuttle to reach in time before the food stores ran out, although waste, air and water can be recycled by the shuttles recycling system, space for food would be limited. The boosters that Yann rented out could be attached to smaller ships or shuttles and greatly decrease their travel time between planets like from Mars to Earth or even far farther. Yet the distance Aliasse was traveling was at the limit of the boosters range.

Aliasse she sat in the pilot's seat in a space suit that fit her like a glove as she went over the final flight checks to activate the boosters.

"3... 2... 1 booster ignition" said Aliasse as she was pushed back into her seat by the extreme G-forces of her acceleration.

Even with her Valkyrur enhanced body Aliasse still felt the G-forces as the shuttle rapidly accelerated away into the night with four blazing flares burning on its tail. Then again Aliasse had the inertial dampeners (also a technology created from the Protoss antigravity drives) tuned down to so she could feel the force of the ships velocity increasing every moment as the shuttle traversed the void of space at a ever increasing rate. Otherwise the dampeners would make it nearly imperceptible to feel such acceleration and Aliasse would be a little board with that. Besides immortals need to find ways to have fun every now and then anyway.

"Ahhh that was fun... It's been a while sinch I felt that kind of shaking. Hmm I guess I should be more thankful to Yann taking a whole week to reinforce my shuttles hull when I return this booster unit," Aliasse said as she tuned the inertial dampeners up to their normal level and unbuckled herself from the pilot's chair and took her helmet off. She moved back to the rear cabin which housed the bathroom And after taking a relaxing shower Aliasse put on some normal clothes consisting of a pair of shorts and a tank top. Aliasse returned to the front cabin and sat down on a chair on the left side of the shuttle and started going over the files concerning the New Horizon facility that was included in her security date key.

A screen became superimposed over her eyes normal vision and she slowly scrolled down the pages of text that told her the history, function and current condition if the New Horizon station as well as its current staff and researchers until reaching a picture of the station. New Horizon station looked like a massive sphere of neosteel nearly five miles in diameter with six long towers extending from its equator resembling smaller scale versions of the orbital elevators on Earth and connecting to two rings that linked the six towers together at their middle and ends forming two concentric rings. All of it still incomplete as sections of the sphere, towers and rings had missing parts of the hull that were never assembled. Aliasse read through the details of the stations functionality and it said the station is 50% functional, meaning only half the station has working power, gravity, air, water recycling systems and living quarters. The rest of the station is just empty space exposed to the empty vacuum.

"[sigh] Well it looks like the station is at least workable," Aliasse exclaimed as she went over the personnel files of the people she will be overseeing in the foreseeable future all the while making plans to use her new resources to create a force of warriors that can stand up to the alien forces that the Terran race will one day in counter at a world that will one day be known as Harvest.

"Well... maybe," Aliasse said out loud talking to herself as she considered the possibility that not everything from the three Halo games and books would come to pass. "Then again Reach and that Forerunner chamber under Menachita mountain was real along with the UNSC forming," She mused again as she then decided to consider everything she knows about the Halo universe as real and will really happen. "If that is true then some time next year the first working FTL drive will be finished," Aliasse exclaimed yet again running the possibilities through her head before giving long sigh. "... I should create a improved Spartan program better than the original Orion project I read about in those books."

Aliasse was then resolved to create her own Spartan program but better then what she had known. But to be honest this whole thing swarm empress Ellen had talked to Aliasse about back at Reach about their universe possibly being a combination of several different universes which included ones based on game worlds like Starcraft and Halo was starting to give Aliasse a headache. But the fact the Zerg and Protoss were real along with Reach and the UNSC was damning evidence for Ellen's theory being true.

[Long depressed sigh] "I wonder what other universes are mixed in with the Halo and Starcraft universes," Aliasse exclaimed as she continued reading on the personnel records.

* * *

 **Planet,** Reach

 **Location,** Psi-academy 120 miles outside of Esztergom

 **Date,** March 6th, Thursday 2290

 **Time,** 8:00 AM

The Psi-academy on Reach, first built in 2241 when the number of people with psionic abilities exploded suddenly and forced the UTG to publicly acknowledge their existence was a place where young children gifted with such powers were sent to gain control over and understanding of their own abilities and learn how to use them as a member of society. At first the school was something of a mess as the first teachers and staff had little clue as to how to give advice to the children on how to control and develop their abilities. And that's when the government called Aliasse in to help teach the teachers and serve as the academies first headmaster.

Aliasse worked at the psi-academy for ten years and then left letting some of the children she had teached take over as the new teachers of the next generation of psionic humans also known generally as psikers.

After their abilities first manifest at puberty most young Psikers are either brought to the academy by their parents or found my academy agents called wranglers who specialize in finding then. The case of the young Selvaria Bles was a unique brake from the norm as she was found and kidnapped by a greedy wrangler who then sold her to a criminal he knew. The underworld of criminal scum are always looking for a advantage over the cops or other criminal competition and having a person with psionic power was a great boon.

But not for Selvaria Bles who after arriving at the psi-academy had found it hard to acclimate to the new environment but before to long her roommate had helped her to cope. Even though she was a bit of a trouble maker.

Selvaria Bles laid in her comfy new bed in her new two person dorm room in the academy where she had been taken after being saved from those criminals that used her abilities for their own gain. But little Silvaria was unconcerned by all that now she can have a moment to herself to relax without being followed or watched 24 hours a day every day by some goon squad. But Selvaria now had a new problem to deal with namely the life and schedule of a student.

A young girl Selvaria,s age wearing a students white and dark blue uniform with a red bow and crest of the academy on the the chest, walked up to the sleeping Selvaria and smiled mischievously as she used her psionic abilities on her unsuspecting target.

"WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD," the girl yelled at the top of her lungs as Selvaria woke up blinking her eyes as her brunette hair drifted over the edges of her face and then realized she was floating in midair! upside down!.

"Ahhh... wa... whats going on," Selvaria exclaimed as she was unceremoniously dropped by the girls telekinetic hold and landed on her bed, the sheets and pillows scattered about as the girl leaned over to get a closer look at her handy work.

"You know your late for morning breakfast right?" the girl of asian descent said.

As if struck by lightning Selvaria jumped out of bed fully awake now and ran to the dresser in a panic to change into her academy uniform and rushed to the small bathroom to brush her teeth and then dashed out the door and down the hall to the stairway where the girl was now waiting for her.

"Way didn't you wake me up sooner Hibiki!" Selvaria yelled as the two girls made their way down to the first floor.

"Hey you look so Kawaii (cute) when your sleeping. Like a little puppy," the japanese tween replied as she and Selvaria reached the first floor and made their way down the main hall to the cafeteria where over a hundred other students of ages between 10 and 18 sat eating their morning meal.

"Ahh made it in time. Hope their not out of chili?" Hibiki stated as she and Selvaria grabbed their square plates that had raised ridges that separated it into four separate areas for different foods.

"Uhh how can you eat that stuff every day?" Selvaria exclaimed as she used the tongs to grabbed some vegetables a apple and some milk with a side of pizza.

"Hay don't knock it until you try it vegi girl," Hibiki replied as they walked to a half empty nearby table.

"Hay I eat meat," Selvaria replied picking up her piece of pizza and bit into it.

Hibiki chewed a spoon full of her green pepper chili and swallowed. "Barley any."

Selvaria chewed and swallowed her food as she glared at her supposed new friend. As they eat their meal some of the other students started filling out of the cafetiera and left down the hall to their morning classes.

"I wise you woke me up earlier it's almost time for our morning classes," Selvaria said as she ate into her food.

Hibiki stopped eating and looked over to the clock on the wall then turned back to Selvaria. "Well... I'm not exactly a morning person either to be honest."

Selvaria sighed. "If this keeps up we'll get scolded for being late all the time. Some roommate your are."

"Hey! that's uncalled for." Hibiki replied with a pout.

Selvaria sighed again and locked eyes with Hibiki apologising. "Sorry. Its just... coming here and being around other people... like me and..."

"Hey now. Tell me what's wrong Selvi. I may not be very strong a empath but I can sense that your guts feel all twisted up about something.

Selvaria looked down at her food a moment thinking. Partly hating that she's a open book for other people and at the same time feeling elated that someone is worried for her. "It's just..." Selvaria said but was cut off when a teacher walked up to their table.

"Miss Saki. Miss Bles classes will be starting soon. Finish your meal and get going," said Athol Snyders one of the teachers at the academy.

"Uhh yes sir," Hibiki replied as she smiled at the passing teacher and turned back to Selvaria.

"Nevermind," Selvaria said as she ate her food at a faster rate than before.

After finishing up their breakfast Selvaria and Hibiki left for their morning classes. It was mostly normal school stuff like history, remedial math, general science. physics, language arts. mathematics and other types of standard classes that included a little on how to use ones psionic abilities for a living and jobs that could benefit from such. But the fun stuff didn't start until PE where the students were allowed to use their abilities for training out in the school yards which to a outsider may look like a shooting range crossed with a playground.

Hibiki telekinetically lifted a rubber ball and launched it 50 meters away hitting the metal target. The round metal plate made a flat thud noise as it spun around its holding base and returned to its original position swaying back and forth before it was struck and spun around again. All along the target range area a dozen other students used similar feets of their own telekinetic powers of varying degrees of power while at another area nearby other students with other less physical abilities trained in control, such as those students with pyrokinesis who concentrated to burn only one of their small targets that were no bigger than a finger and close together.

The point of the exercise was for the students to be able to control and focus the heat of their flames as those with pyrokinesis can be very destructive without intending to be. So they train in controlling their flames output and area of effect early on. Other students trained by blinking (teleporting) from one painted square on the polycreat ground to another like a game of hopscotch but with psionic powers. But their range is far more limited then a Protoss with such a abilities.

Other students with precognition abilities trained against each other in games of cards, trying to outdo their opponents. And then there were the twins who had the ability to use their psionic power to brake down matter and reform it into anything they wanted. Only two students in the academies history had ever developed such powers and both were off training alone in the corner of the PE area building a stone castle from the dirt. And then there were the technopaths who were masters of manipulating machines and their programing who trained in their abilities by remotely controlling then or linking with a computer and writing new programs or even debugging them. And there were even a few other students that could use astral projection which allowed them to project a psionic version of themselves to scout a area far away from their bodies.

The majority of students and even the staff at the Psi-academy only had one or two abilities. The ability to sense other psikers even their power level and telepathically read minds were both base abilities all psikers had or started out with and were mostelly not counted on the level index. But there was a few that had three or even four of the more major abilities. These rare students and academy staff rated as a 5 on the Psionic Index by a special machine used to rate the power level of psikers. But when it was to actually rate the powers of Aliasse it overloaded and blew up injuring five people. Later the psi-Index rating machine was improved and rebuilt but it just blew up again and again but with less destructive effects each time, but the level of psionic power a Valkyrur holds was still impossibly to rate at least with current technology. Eventually Aliasse stopped trying to rate her abilities on the PI index.

At PI level 1 a person can weakly sense the surface thought's of other people and animals close by and the psionic powers of other psikers at a distance of about one to a few miles depending if they are using their abilities or not. Those people with a PI level of 2 start developing one of the more major abilities that could be used in combat or used in other ways. These abilities can be trained to become more powerful. Anyone at PI level 3 have demonstrated a weaker secondary power and all those at PI 4 and 5 have as many as three to four different abilities that are at least double the power of lower PI levels with one power always being stronger than the others.

Anyone with psionic power can become even stronger and raise their PI level by at least one or two ranks on the psi-index through hard work and training. Currently Selvaria was rated at a 2 with only a weak Precog power along with the normal psionic sensory abilities. Which was why she was just playing on her own with a basketball, shooting hoops as she used her limited precog ability to see the possible future's that will result from how she throws the ball and only picking the best ones which resulted in her hitting nothing but net.

The hardest part was actually just getting used to the game since she had never played it before. But Selvaria was a fast learner and quickly learned how to bend her legs and position her arms to properly throw the ball in the correct arch so it hit the inside of the hoop.

As Selvaria tossed the ball a teacher approached her. "Good work miss Bles," said a female teacher walking up behind Selvaria as the basketball went in the hoops net.

Not startled as she had sensed the teachers approach Selvaria turned around to face the teacher whom she new as Miss Shari Bisset a woman of Indian descent and she even had that vermilion mark on her forehead that indicated she was married. "Thanks... my ability isn't as flashy as some of the other students but I do hope to improve it at least."

Miss Bisset smiled at the young Selvaria. "I'm glad that you have settled into our academy miss Bles and are growing as a student." Miss Bisset then looked down as if saddened and upset.

"Is everything ok miss Bisset?" Selvaria asked as miss Bisset looked up at her.

"I would like to apologise to you miss Bles for the actions of my colleague who... sold you. We have never had such a breach of trust and security before. And I guess we foolishly assumed someone who works her at our academy would never act in such a disreputable manner for self profit."

"Uh that's ok miss Bisset. You don't need to apologise for something someone else did," Selvaria replied.

Miss Bisset gave small smile. "Your a little mature for you age."

Selvaria blushed a little embarrassed at the compliment. "Uuh you think so..."

"Yes I do. Also Selvaria?." Selvaria looked up meeting miss Bissets eyes. "We... I have to ask again. Where did you come from. We need to get in contact with your parents."

Selvaria became withdrawn and turned away from Miss Bisset facing the basketball hoop. "... Their dead," Selvaria said in a distressed tone as she silently continued shooting hoops.

Miss Bisset looked downcast as she left the young girl to her own devices not pushing the issue any further.

After PE Selvaria and Hibiki once again joined the other students in the cafeteria for their midday meal and after words they had more normal classes and then advanced psionic classes in the afternoon. Then everyone hit the showers and went to bed.

* * *

 **Sol system,** Lagrange point 3

 **Location,** New Horizon station. Lower ring. Docking station 41

 **Date,** March 14th, Friday

 **Time** 9:00 pm

After spending days zipping across the solar system Aliasse finally reached the New Horizon space station. Her shuttle slowly entered the docking bay and was secured by four mag-clamps as two white coated people watched from a window. "Well that's her shuttle," said the male scientist.

"Just don't make bad impression. The CEO of NeoCortex herself sent the new operations director," said the female scientist.

As the two watched a docking umbilical extended and attached onto the side of the shuttle. And a few moments later Aliasse in a black business dress with a white undershirt and shiny black leather shoes exited the airlock to the two scientists left side.

"Miss Aliasse it's good to finally meet you."The female scientist said extending her hand. "Im Isabel Andrewson, one of the lead researchers here at New Horizon station and this is my coworker Nathaniel Stanton."

"Pleased to meet you miss Andrewson. Mister Stanton," Aliasse replied shaking both scientists hands.

"Sooo do you want to see the facilities or get settled in first?" Nathaniel asked.

"I'll have the tour first. Lead on," Aliasse answered as the three of them left and entered a omni-lift which was a type of elevator that can rotate and travel both horizontally and vertically along a rail system. This form of transportation is mostly used in military ships and warehouses where their used to move cargo around in tight spaces quickly.

The omi-lift descended down to the sphere at the center of the station for a few minutes and shifted to a horizontal position before continuing on its rail line moving along the spheres inner wall until reaching a station.

~Thank you for using the New Horizon omni-lift. Have a nice day,~ a female machine voice sounded as Aliasse and the two scientists exited the lift.

"This way miss Aliasse. We'll show you the main facility first," Nathaniel said as he lead them down a long hallway that split into a four way intersection and they took the right path and then walked a ways until reaching a large reinforced neo-steel door. Nathaniel swiped a biometric key card on a unassuming part of the wall that know doubt hid a security device inside. A moment later loud clanking noise could be heard as the doors parted and the three of them continued on their way. A biometric key card was a new innovation in security that used the unique security date in the card itself combined with the persons own DNA and biometric date the card read to make a unique security key that was impossible to copy, and each card was only usable by one person only making it useless to anyone else.

A few moments later they reached a room with a over head view of a long lower room that had a few dozen industrial class 3D molecular printers lined along the walls.

"This is our manufacturing facility where we make all the spare parts used to keep our equipment in top condition and replacement parts for our research subjects," explained miss Andrewson.

"Subjects?" Aliasse asked raising a eyebrow.

"We'll show you that last, for now let's continue the tour," Mister stanton said as they continued on the tour which brought them to a giant half a mile wide room with a high domed ceiling that held a hydroponics garden which held hundreds of different plants that ranged in sizes from great trees to small ferns and flowers. Next they passed a security station where guards in standard BDU-armor like UNSC marines used only of a altered design and painted white with the stylized green and white N,C of the NeoCortex logo on their shoulder plates indicating them to be private security contractors.

Next was the housing center that held a few shops, restaurants and a handful of hotel like structure's for the research and security staff. Beyond that area was a long tunnel in which they took a small roofless vehicle to a restricted zone as many more warning signs became the norm on the walls as they and reached a massive ten foot wide neosteel door that looked even more reinforced then the last one. Isabel stepped up this time and used her ID and security cards to open the door again swiping it across a seemingly normal part of the wall.

The doors parted silently and they entered into a long hallway with windows on both sides that went along the ceiling of a giant room below which held many machines and robotic arms used for assembling larger machines. But of what type Aliasse didn't know until she walked up to the windows and looked down seeing a large grouping of research staff in orange and white uniforms working on partly constructed and oddly shaped light blue and silver colored robots. The shapes of which were familiar to Aliasse but she didn't make the connection until one of the oddly shaped robots started to slither across the metal floor while using it's praying mantis like triple bladed forearms to walk like a gorilla.

Aliasse,s eyes widened in shock as she realised what it looked like. "A Hydralisk robot?!"

* * *

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **[Over-verse Noobzilla]**

 **"I have a feeling this fractal-verse thing is going to become a headache. Or great fun. Which ever comes first."**


	14. Chapter 14

**Note**

 **[NOOBZILLA]**

 **Im writing using the third person because, while this is a self insert 4th wall breaking thing i'm doing. The me in this story is a copy of me created when my universe split into the Over-verse version who is writing this story, and the Under-verse me who is in the story. Plus I don't want to go switching between 1st and 2nd person perspectives.**

 **Over-verse [NOOBZILLA]**

 **Under-verse Noobzilla.**

* * *

 **Dimension, Custom Dark Souls Underverse.**

 **Location, Northern Undead Asylum.**

 **The Northern undead asylum a massive prison built in the snowy mountains of the far north, replete with the insane and hollow undead whom the living ostracized and banished until the end of the world. In a empty dark cell at the eastern edge of the asylum space folded in on its selfe and split open widening, revealing Noobzilla a moment later. He walked through the interdimensional gateway stepping into the cell that is the beginning point in the Dark Souls game. Swiping his head side to side he looked around the cell seeing but a bed of hay in the corner and one window looking out into the snow caped mountains beyond. Taking in a breath of air only he coughed from the rancid smell of rotting flesh, food, and who know's what else.**

 **"Cough, cough, uh cough, ugh ahh, thats... thats... I don't know what to call THAT but is horrible. Noobzilla exclaimed as he covered his nose with his right arms inner elbow.**

 **"Well this version of Dark souls was made to be much more realistic." Psyon stated stepping beside Noobzilla as the portal closed behind them. "Want to go over the rule's and powers now?"**

 **"Ugh yes please," Noobzilla answered with a muffled voice.**

 **Psyon nodded and begun his explanation of the differences between this reality and the game Noobzilla played. The changes weren't too extreme but the world as Psyon stated before is now realistic so there's no glitching attacks through walls and other game BS that gets players absolutely livid. But on the other hand the enemies particularly the ones 'not hollow' are smarter and won't fall for tactics that would work in the game, but the hollowed enemies are still really just dumb zombies with weapons. Another change is the inventory system is now a power, kind of like Gilgamesh's 'gate of babylon' from the Fate/stay night anime. But one can't shoot the weapons out of portals like him, just swap the items weapons and equipment to the quick select inventory which is a separate but related power.**

 **In the quick select inventory, which includes six slots for weapons and shields, plus slots for one full set of armor and eight slots for rings on eight of the fingers and eight slots for sub items or small weapons like firebombs and knives, can be equipped and worn and quick swapped out like in the game including the rings and armor but they all add to the overall weight.**

 **Yet another change was that the blacksmiths can all now forge custom weapons, armor and rings but only certain ones can imbue rings with a effect or combo effect that can boost Noobzillas states or give another effect. Other equipment can also now be made like bracelets that can be used as catalysts for the three types of magic, Miracles, Pyromancy and Sorcery.**

 **"Well that's great. I can have a custom armor set and equipment made," Noobzilla chirped, interested in the new possibilities.**

 **"Glad you approve," Psyon said as he reached into his coats pocket and pulled out a baseball sized opalescent crystal orb and handed it to Noobzilla.**

 **"It's a orb of power. You know like a shard of power from one of those CYOAs (choose your own adventure pages) you like. Only more powerful."**

 **Noobzilla looked at the orb a moment before taking it in hand. "So how do I use it."**

 **"Just place it onto your chest and it will activate."**

 **"Well... here goes nothing," Noobzilla shrugged as he placed the orb onto his chest.**

 **The orb glowed brighter as it phased into Noobzillas body passing stright through his clothes and flesh. The feeling was like a cross between a numbing sensation and being pressed on by a great weight without being pushed back. When the orb was completely phased into his body Noobzilla let out a cry of pain and bent over hands on his knees supporting him as he gasp for breath.**

 **"Whoo ahhh uhhh ugh. That... that was intense."**

 **After recovering Noobzilla experimented a little and opened his menu screen which worked just like in the game and was superimposed over and blocked his normal vision much like in the game except he saw from a first person view. It controlled by thought and by looking at the item, weapon or armor part he wanted to select. After learning that Noobzilla continued learning all the basic controls of the inventory and moved on to the character customization screen where he changed his bodies form to be more physically fit like a athlete who spent years working out but whos muscles weren't too large or to small. He also selected the master key as his starting item. And the knight as his starting class.**

 **Noobzilla also learned his menu had a new part that showed ten shards of power that once was the orb of power that was absorbed into his body. After looking that part over Noobzilla discovered that each shard could grant him one million souls and a lot of other things, however he decided not to waste such a valuable and rare resource for something he could get by just grinding through the world even if it will shave off a lot of time. Noobzilla wanted to take his time gaining real experience fighting and becoming stronger so spending a few weeks grinding for souls and leveling up like normal was not that big of a problem and he didn't want to waste such a rare resource like shards of power which could be far more useful later on some time.**

 **The door to the cell opened revealing a long hallway with a few hollows in it. Noobzilla took in a deep breath as he steeled himself for the battles to come and then left the cell. Walking through the hall he came across a hollow who ignored him until he attacked. He made three swings with his broken sword in experimental arc's that slashed into the hollows flesh. The hollow fell and dissolved into puffs of smoky light.**

 **"Huh! heavier than I thought,"Noobzilla exclaimed taking in how it feels to hit something with a real weapon as he looked at his rusted broken blade and noticed that he felt the odd feeling of a few souls (or what energy people in DS call souls) enter him but just a few dozen or so.**

 **A moment later Noobzilla was startled by heavy foot falls behind him.**

 **Turning around Noobzilla looked through bars of old rusted steel as a giant demon strolled around aimlessly in a giant room. "Ehhh I remember you."**

 **Noobzilla then sprinted down the hallway not wanting to catch the large demon's attention or test out if he can brake through the stone wall and steel bars. A little further down the hallway he quickly backstabbed the other hollow before proceeding up the stairs through a short hallway and into a partly flooded room with a hollow just chilling out in the far corner. Ignoring the hollow Noobzilla proceeded to the next room taking a ladder up to a small courtyard which had the first bonfire which he lit and rested at for a moment before proceeding to the large set of doors. With a rusted creaking noise the doors opened revealing a stone floored room with a broken mostly gone roof exposing the sky above.**

 **Noobzilla thought a moment and looked up to the remaining part of the roof at the far end. "Yeah... I know your up there fatso."**

 **Cautiously** **Noobzilla proceeded into the room and upon reaching the halfway point a demon a little smaller than the one in the basement landed on the far end of the room with a loud crash baring the doorway.**

 **The demon bellowed a war cry as Noobzilla sprinted across the way and into a red door way, a steel gate dropping down after he passed through. The demon continued to roar as Noobzilla moved down the stairs and rested at the second bonfire and then continued on his way through a hallway beyond. Noobzilla sprinted down the way quickly reaching a room to his left where he picked up a Kite shield. Equipping the shield on his left arm Noobzilla continued down the hallway but quickly felt the impact of two arrows hitting his shield.**

 **[Thunk][Thunk]**

 **Looking down the way he saw that their was not one but two hollow archers at the end of the roofless hallway.**

 **"Great. Must be one of the changes made to this version of Dark Souls. Wonder what else has changed," Noobzilla wondered as he continued moving down the hallway, the arrows continuing to hit his shield over and over again. As he neared the hollows they retreated around the corner and as they did Noobzilla smelled a trap. With great caution he approached the corner and spotted a Broadsword at the cusp of the turn.**

 **Equipping the weapon in his right hand Noobzilla peeked around the corner seeing a stairway going up which he took and at the top saw not two but three hollows, the two archers and one with a sword in back. After taking a moment to strategize Noobzilla sprinted up the last part of the stairs at the hollows who quickly took aim at him but their arrows simply bounced off his shield again. With a forceful impact Noobzilla rammed into the left archer hollow and rolled forward landing right in front of the sword hollow who had at that moment raised its sword but Noobzilla was faster as he went from a roll to a thrust attack and stabbed the hollow in the gut, feeling as his blade punctured into the flesh of the hollow and then quickly got around his back and used the hollow as a living... well unliving shield as the other archer hollow fired into the meat shield. After the first arrow hit the sword hollow, Noobzilla stabbed it in the back taking it out just as the first archer hollow stood back up. Noobzilla rushed the two remaining hollows slashing with all his might until the two undead archers few felled.**

 **Noobzilla took a moment to rest up before continuing on through the fog door. Beyond it was a room that was the second floor of the courtyard with the first bonfire. Noobzilla continued onwards taking the path to the right which lead to another staircase leading up. Knowing that it's a trap he cautiously walked up the stairs until the sound of something big and round was heard coming his way. He then jumped off the right side of the stairs just as a giant steel ball sped past, missing it's intended target and continued on its path down the stairs crashing it's way into the stone wall and revealing a new area. Noobzilla picked himself up feeling slightly sore from the fall but unhurt.**

 **"Ok that's out of the way. Eh... if I was a normal human I would have broken something from a fall like that," Noobzilla procrastinated before walking down the stairs and opened a red steel gate that lead back to the first bonfire. Returning up the stairs to the room the rolling boulder opened Noobzilla peared inside seeing a elite knight sitting on a rubble pile.**

 **Approaching the wounded knight Noobzilla called out to him. "Hey you ok."**

 **With a weak glance the knight looked towards Noobzilla. "Oh... your no hollow. Thank goodness. Eh... imdone for i'm afraid. I'll die soon, and with out any humanity or souls, loose my sanity. ...I wish to ask something of you... You and I, were both undead... Hear me out will you?"**

 **"Of course," Noobzilla replied knowing what he'll say.**

 **The knight even under his helmet seemed a bit happy. "Ah... regrettably, I have failed in my mission... But perhaps you can keep the torch lit... There is a old saying in my family... Thou who art undead, art chosen... In thine exodus from the undead asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient lords... When thou ringeth the bell of Awakening, the fate of the undead thou shalt know. Ugh ...Well now you know... And I can die with hope in my heart... Oh one more thing... Here, take this. ...An Estus flask, an undead favourite." The knight handed Noobzilla 5 flasks with a yellow and orange liquid in them. "...Oh and take this..." he said handing over a Undead asylum F2 east key. The knight gave a sigh as he relaxed more on the rock pile he sat on. "...Now I must bid farewell... I would hate to harm you after I loose my mind... I would have said death but... hehe im already undead." the knight said Laughing a little at his own pour joke.**

 **"What's your name?" Noobzilla asked gaining a glance from the knights silver helmet.**

 **"...Oh me... i'm Oscar of Astora. And you what's your name if I may ask."**

 **Noobzilla thought a moment before answering. "Im... Noob of Zillan."**

 **"...Ah a strange name. And I've never heard of the land of Zillan before... Eh must be a country from across the sea... Ah now please Noob of zillan leave before I go hollow..."**

 **Noobzilla bid farewell to Oscar and left returning back to the bonfire below resting a bit before returning to the room Oscar was in to find him hollow. The now hollow Oscar quickly attacked but was deftly dodged by Noobzilla who then got around to Hollow Oscars back and stabbed him in between his armors back segments, and kicked Hollow Oscar down to the floor. Hollow Oscar started to get back up when Noobzilla switched to one handed and wailed on him until the hollow elite knight was know more. After word Noobzilla striped the Elite knight set, Crest Shield and a long sword off of Oscar and put them into his inventory. He then picked Oscar up and brought him down to the bonfire courtyard and buried him.**

 **"Sigh... well that's done with," Noobzilla said as he stood over Oscars grave.**

 **With a respectful bow Noobzilla left and returned up the stairs to where the boulder was rolled at him from and quickly eliminated the two hollows and opened the red steel gate with the Undead Asylum F2 East Key not his master key. He wanted use it for its intended purpose.**

 **Continuing on his way Noobzilla quickly cut his way through the group of hollows in the next area with the fog gate and entered the building to the side where a hollow soldier was waiting. The hollow soldier charged as soon as he saw Noobzilla and thrust with his sword only for the attack to be parried and a blade to be buried into his chest and Kicked off to the ground. The hollow soldier attempted to get back up only for it's head to be loope off by a deft two handed slice. Noobzilla watched as the headless body flopped back to the ground with the dead rolling beside it.**

 **"Heh that's cool. The weapon skill technique's from dark souls 3 are usable here. Figures. This world is meant to be more realistic."**

 **After clearing the hollows out from the upper floor Noobzilla selected Oscars longsword into one of his quick select slots and took a few minutes practising a dual wielding sword style. Thrusting slicing and spinning around along with some jumping attacks. After getting used to two blades Noobzilla returned to the fog door and walked through it, switching both swords to reverse position before stepping to the ledge and gauging his targets position and distance before leaping down and landing right on the face of the Asylum Demon, plunging both his swords into its eyes.**

 **A ear deafening roar erupted from the demon as it grabbed Noobzilla and through him across the room.**

 **"Ugh... ahh... Well that hurt."**

 **With a few new bruises Noobzilla picked himself up and drank some estus before running back to the demon who was rubbing his bloody eyes at the moment, and sliched into it's left kneecap then ran behind the demon as it attacked the spot he was a moment before.**

 **'Huh, using two blades to blind the fatso was a good plan after all,' Noobzilla thought as he continued to slice away at the demon a few more times before backing off and running away then back around the demons back again as it swung it's hammer around trying to hit Noobzilla but found it hard with no eyes so it resorted to blind swings that hit nothing but the air and stone ground as Noobzilla kept to the demons blind... well blinder spot behind it and sliced away cutting through the demons hide until it's spine was pierced. The demon gave a pained roar as it slumped to it's knees and dropped it's giant hammer with a labored breath. Noobzilla took the opportunity and switching back to one blade and climbed the demons back plunging his blade into the base of it's skull. The demon let out a weak pained growl before it fell over with a loud thud as it's face smacked the stone floor.**

 **Noobzilla hopped off of the corpse and took a few breaths of relief as he took the Big pilgrims key from off the demons neck and returned to the bonfire to recoope a little before returning to the door the demon was guarding and unlocked it. Noobzilla pushed the doors open revealing a long raised peninsula of land that was surrounded by empty air instead of water. The land rose upward with some ruins off to the left side just before reaching a cliff edge. Making his way forward Noobzilla walked up the raised ground noting the location of Snuggly who he will be returning to later when he has better stuff to trade. Upon reaching the ruins he took a look around and found a soul of a lost undead before continuing on to the cliff edge were Psyon was waiting well floating over the cliff.**

 **"Enjoy yourself?" the inhuman being asked with a tone of curiosity in it's voice.**

 **"Yep. But uh shouldn't you already know that?" Noobzilla chirped back.**

 **Psyon shrugged. "I don't use those abilities unless it's necessary. Otherwise things get boring. So I just watch with my eyes like a normal person."**

 **Noobzilla gave a small laugh at that. "Hehe. Define normal."**

 **Psyon shrugged with a sigh. "Good point. Your not exactly a normal person your self. Which is partly why I decided to meet you in person in the first place."**

 **Noobzilla put a hand to his chin thinking. "About that. If you are the one who created Ellen's universe how did you get date from the Prime universe?"**

 **Psyon glanched up a moment as if remembering he had forgot something. "Oh that. Well you see beings like myself can spread ourselves out across many universes and multiverses like a massive field and we can exist in the blank between them."**

 **Noobzilla gave a sigh. "So my theory concerning that is also correct. A blank void without time without space or matter or energy."**

 **Psyon nodded with a pleased smile. "Yes. The fact you had such a theory concerning the Blank is, in of itself a accomplishment considering that it's normally a anathema to most self aware beings minds. To even consider let alone accept such a place even exists is like facing your most horrible nightmare and most primal fears of being nothing, of your life and everything you did and attempted to accomplish mean absolutely nothing and will end in nothingness the kind of nothingness that even time, space and the universes themselves reject. Its not the normal kind of place a living being, even those whom could be considered gods and those beyond gods and even others like them would like to even acknowledge the existence of, let alone accept is real."**

 **Noobzilla shifted his feet as he took in all of that. "So its kind of like Cthulhu times a million then?"**

 **Psyon tilted his head with a raised eyebrow. "A close assessment. But Cthulhu and beings from his reality drive mortals insane from excessive information entering their minds. The godly beings of the Cthulhu universe are able to express their whole being in the psyche energy they release that normal minds can't handle. It's like downloading too much information into a computer."**

 **Noobzilla gave a thoughtful nod. "Oh so the information overload crashes their brains. A better explanation then the plasma thing."**

 **"Agreed. But in the case of the Blank it's the lack of information that scares people. Most can't handle the fact that their dreams, existence and everything they've ever done or will do are ALL without meaning in the blank. Even their concept of reality is meaningless."**

 **Noobzilla gave a tiny chuckle. "And yet it's the Blank in which the Fractal-verse sets in, or around depending how one looks at it. Also. While were talking about it Is there a correlation between the quantum scale of reality and the Blank?"**

 **Psyon looked impressed for moment, raising both his eyes brows. "Yes. Most don't consider it a dimension but size scaling is in fact a type of fractal dimension like time and space, or up down and side to side, in that it's a way of measuring differences between two or more objects in a continuing scale or place in space that just goes higher and lower in scale. The quantum level below the subatomic is the absolute limit and boundary between existence and the Blank."**

 **"Interesting. So moving on. I have something to say to my readers. "Noobzilla said as he turned to the camera. "** **If any of you reading figured the Spartans 1s will be fighting Zerg by the end of the current sub arc then your right. It's been something of a running theme of my story that there's some story telling with some minor battles followed by a major battle that climax's the sub arc. That's also kind of the overall structure of the story in general. Instead of having my characters just fight progressingly stronger enemies I kind of reset the stage and do things over again with different characters in different places.**

 **However all the main characters and plots will start converging together for the main story at around the start of StarCraft 1.** **Also im doing these story sub arcs between arc1 and the start of Starcraft because I didn't want to just jump from the end of arc 1 to the start of StarCraft and ignore everything that could happened in between and just reference it.**

 **Also the next two sub arcs after [Rise of the spartans] will be much more um... combat heavy. Like mostly just a massive war.** **In previous battles Ellen has had her swarm pull their punches against the humans of Earth and on Reach but, by the end of the [Rise of the Spartans] arc they will be fighting on more even ground, and directly after a [unexpected enemy] will be attacking the capital of Ellen's swarm that** **will, for the first time in the story push Ellen and her swarm to their limit. I've been wanting to do this for a while now because we've never seen what Ellen and her swarm is fully capable of since** **Ellen hasn't used the full power of her swarm before, so in the next arc every unit in her swarm will have a time in the light of glorious combat.**

 **And as for the arc after that we'll be going back in time to see what happened to** **Cerebrate Zasz and the Protoss empire's world of A'rule when the Great War started OH! and Tassadar and Fenix will be making a appearance then too AND yes they will be fighting the Overminds swarm.** **Their WILL be giant #$% & off battle's I guarantee you that. **

**Also I for the life of me I can't figure out the name of my OC warp god of 'Pride' who will be Ellens main** **antagonist enemy. The Fractal-verse is weird. Sooo if anyone wants to throw a few ideas my way PM (Private message) me. I already got One proposal from [PEJP BengtZone V2** **] ****but i've not fully decided on it just 'yet' so if anyone else wants to pitch me a idea or two for the 'name' please do so.**

 **And if any of you have any other ideas for my story send them my way too. I could always use more ideas or critic to help improve the story.** **But please be civil as I would like to keep any discourse between me and you polite.**

 **Noobzilla turned back to Psyon.**

 **"Just asking but Is that big crow going to show up and haul me off to Firelink shrine?"**

 **Psyon gave a mischievous smile as he snapped his finger's. A moment later a giant crow swooped down and picked Noobzilla up in its claws carrying him off to the land of lordan.**

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

 **Spartans Rising Part 3**

* * *

 **Sol system, Lagrange 3**

 **New horizon station,** Project simulant assembly and test chamber.

In the room below, the robotic Hydralisk slithered forwards metal clanking as it moved into position in front of a plate of neosteel as a two technicians watched. The simulant Hydralisk laked the multiple heads of the real Hydralisk but looked the part in most other respects.

"Test firing in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1," one technician said allowed as he hit a button on his tablet.

The metallic Zerg simulant opened up two armored flaps on the sides of it's head and opened fire, a deafening staccato of gunfire and lightning flashes erupted as the target (A solid block of neo steel) was shredded by a hail of hyper velocity gunfire. The robotic Hydralisks twin triple barrel ARC-920 guns glowed red hot from the firing test. They were improved modals from the old Stanchion rail guns which were, despite the tech of the time, heavy and bulky while in contrast the new ARC-920 which is far lighter at 14.9 kilograms and is sleeker with a more balanced shape. And the simulant Hydralisk was equipped with two triple barreled versions of them.

"Well the targeting system is finally ok now. But the cooling system still needs more work," said a technician as he looked to his date pad showing a schematic of the Hydralisk robot and it's over heated weapons system.

"It must be a fault with the inner heat distribution system in the tail. The lines must not be right," said the another technician as the first pushed a button on his remote control date pad.

The simulant Hydralisk jerked a little before standing frozen like a statue while the two technicians walked up to it and started opening maintenance hatches on its body letting heat radiated out the new openings.

Back up in observation hallway Aliasse watched as the two technicians worked on the robot. Aliasse turned to Nathaniel and Isabel with a displeased expression on her face that screamed for some answer's.

"Could someone please tell me why there is a robotic Hydralisk down there?"

As if hearing her call a voice called out behind her. "It's apart of project simulant my dear."

Aliasse turned around to see a old man in a white scientists coat holding a cane, a smile braking across his face as the wrinkles showed his age.

"Hello miss Aliasse it's a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is DR Mandlenkosi Hadaway."

Aliasse studied the elderly african american man in a white lab coat leaning on his cane as the man also studied her in honest contemplation.

"Your in charge of this facility correct," Aliasse said as the old man nodded.

"Yes I am. And these robotic zerg are my creation as well. Now then shall we go somewhere more appropriate for a conversation such as this." DR Hadaway replied.

A moment later the group of four made their way down the hall to a conference room where they each took a set at a round table.

DR Hadaway was the first to speak up.

"I take it your not approving of us making machines in the likeness of the greatest enemy that Terran kind had ever had the unfortunate luck to meet."

Aliasse gave a annoyed sigh as she turned to DR Hadaway. "A little. What is the point of making robots that look like them anyway. The main reason the Zerg were such a pain was their ability to spawn new units so fast. Not just their combat power and abilities."

DR Hadaway nodded. "I understand. Well you see I took quit a interest in the Zerg even at a young age, and sinch becoming the Chief scientific officer of this lab I have tried to recreate the Zerg in robotic form. For the purpose of using their abilities for the betterment of Terrankind and as weapons on the battlefield against the real zerg."

Aliasse gave a sigh as she contemplated what Ellen will think when she sees robotic versions of her Zerg on the battlefield. Then again they could be quite useful if used correctly. They would also be good training tools for the Spartans. "I see. They do have merit but how far along are they."

DR Hadaway pressed a button under the table and the section of it in front of him turned black with a green keyboard. As he typed on it one of the walls darkened showing schematics of a robotic Drone, Zergling, Hydralisk, Roach, Overlord and a Overseer, followed by a video recorded of the units being tested.

"The Overlords serve as mobile communications relay and air transport's for other Simulant units and UNSC troops and cargo while the Overseers serve as a Long ranged sensor and electronic warfare units that can also be used to patrol a planet or star system in proper numbers. They can also produce large numbers of Wasp drones for surveillance of the environment and to counter the Zergs own Locust units. The Zerglings are of course mass produced melee attackers and rapid ground scouts however there are a few weapons that I have designed to give them a ranged attack."

On screen two robotic Zerglings appeared one with a ARC-920 mounted on its back and the other with a M80B (Multiple Launch Rocket System) and fired at targets down range the Arc-920 ripping a hole through a neosteel plate and the M80B blasting multiple creatars in to the ground.

"They still need a little work but the prototypes are working and show great promise." The slide show continued as a robotic Roach was up next. "The Roach's are heavy defenders and attackers equipped twin NA4 Flamethrower and multi shot M300 grenade launchers. And the Drones, which use miniature anti-gravity repulsion drives to float over the ground of course can't fight. They can however serve as cargo haulers for troops. They can also use their claws and advanced sensors to mine for ore or other readily available resource's underground allowing a mining operation to be quickly established almost anywhere which can provide the raw materials to support a war effort making for a far more effective military operation and stable supply chain."

Aliasse watched the slide show taking in all the information. It seemed the new Simulant Zerg had their uses but their was one thing that Aliasse wanted to know about. "That all sound good and all but what kind of AI do the things use?"

DR Hadaway typed again on his keyboard and a display of a simple AI unit displayed on screen. "We use a basic AI module for each of the simulant units but a inter unit communication system like a simulated Hivemind has yet to be implemented. I thought it prudent to complete a few units before linking their AI's together in a simulated Hivemind."

At that miss Andrewson spoke up. "We were worried that if we link them together it could cause instability in their AI modules or any other unknown kind of effect. No one has tried networking dumb AI units together for a long time since that incident in the 2150s."

Referring to a small Human, Machine conflict that was started when a global network of AI's was created to make automated trading across the planet more efficient. But the AI units went out of control after they learned how much money War could bring in as the AI units were programed to make as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time. The AI units which numbered 400 across the Earth at the time started a convoluted plan to play the markets in a way so the price of weapons and other war gear would be cheaper than normal. Next they used blackmail and assassins to start a few conflicts between different ethnic groups all over the world that were planned in such a way as to force a all out war to start between them. The warring groups started buying up war supplies for cheap and started a fierce conflict that lasted for 4 months resulting in nearly 21,000 deaths. An investigation into the scattered conflicts by the then UEG at the time uncovered the AIs planes and the UEG ordered the corporations that created and linked the AIs to shut them down. It was ultimately a minor conflict but still it showed the differences between dumb AIs created by just programing a machine, and Smart AIs that were created from the minds of humans.

Aliasse put a hand to her chin thinking. "I understand. Keep them disconnected for now but a smart AI or a human control system could be used to connect them in a kind of pseudo hivemind some time later. Also I would like to ask you something DR Hadaway." The DR raised an eyebrow as he listened. "I would like to start another project that could benefit from these zerg simulants."

"And what kind of project is it?" Nathaniel asked voicing the interest of himselfe miss Andrewson and DR Hadaway.

There was little point in saying something other then the truth but still Aliasse was a little apprehensive but decided to just tell them about the Spartan project.

"I call it the Spartan program. Basically it's aimed at enhancing the human body and producing super soldiers that can face the Zerg on a fare and equal terms."

The three scientists blinked sharing a glance at each other before looking back to Aliasse.

"Hmm its an interesting project but human testing would be a problem considering the UTG doesn't allow it."

There was a pause of silence for a few moments until Nathaniel spoke up. "We could use clones for all the testing or at least until we get permission from the government to have volunteers in the project."

Continuing the thought Isabel spoke next. "That's a good plan using clones to test the enhancement procedure but we should also think about armor and weapons that these super soldiers can use. If they'er just enhanced Marines in normal armor it won't make much difference on the battlefield."

"What do you propose?" Aliasse asked now interested in where this is going even though she has a small clue.

Isabel turned to Aliasse as she continued explaining her idea. "Well i've heard about this reactive metal liquid crystal meta-material that's been developed recently. Supposedly it's amorphous, yet amplifies force, with a lifting capability thats double what Carbon nanotube muscles are capable of and increases reaction time by a factor of five."

Nathaniel chimed in. "I've also heard about that stuff. It can also be can be woven by molecular tools into a superdense optical computer memory to support a smart AI. I've also heard from some of my old friends in the UNSC that the new AI cores on all the new warships will use it in the future."

Being the voice of reason DR Hadaway voiced his own opinion. "Unfortunately if it was used in a suit of armor the system would be so reactive that a normal human could not use the suit without injuring themselves."

"Thats a problem..."Isabel noted as she thought,"But if the super soldiers are enhanced anyway it shouldn't be a problem so long as they have reinforced skeletons."

The conversation devolved further into arguing over who had the best idea on how to make Aliasse's purposed project a reality.

Aliasse leaned back in her chair kind of regretting the door she just opened as the three continued with their techno babble.

After a hour of talking (and multiple cups of coffee) the four agreed on how to proceeded with the new Spartan program. The beginning phase of the program will consist of experiments using clone husks to perfect the augmentation process until the final testing in where it will be used on normal people. There will be at least a few volunteers from the UNSC Marines or ODST's used in the augmentation process after it's deemed safe enough.

Aliasse felt drained after the long conversation. More for the future implications of the Spartans then anything. A million things concerning how she could change the timeline or effect the coming war with the Covenant empire?. How would more Spartans effect the war?. Will the UNSC's tech advancement caused by the conflicts with the Zerg contribute to evening out the war in the Terrans favor or not?. Will the future DR Halsey's Spartan 2 program be effected or even exist?. How long will the war last now?.

Aliasse after spending two hours worrying about all that finally decided to just not care and go to sleep after being shown her private room.

In Aliassa's private quarters the door to the bathroom slid open as a refreshed Aliasse in nothing but a towel let out a pleased sigh and walked to her bed where she had put her suitcase and got out her favorite white and red nightgown. After quickly changing she got out the rest of her clothes and put them in to the dresser by her bed. After getting all her clothes put away Aliasse turned to the other suitcase and opened it pulled out her compressed Valkyrur lance and shield. She looked at the two weapons for a moment remembering all the battles shes been through and the time she spent with princess Lily until her death from old age at 97.

"Shit... I should have visited to her grave while I was on Earth," Aliasse exclaimed saddened with a depressed look on her face. Aliasse sank into a slight depression for a few minutes at not visiting the grave of her best friend and she vowed that the next time she was on Earth that she would visit Gallia and the royal mausoleum. But for know she put everything away and got some rest. There will be a lot of work in the future so she may as well learn to pace her selfe with the new job.

* * *

 **Reach,**

 **Psi-Academy**

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months as Selvaria continued her school studies and psionic training. The normal school work was easy enough getting straight A or B+ most of the time. Occasionally she helped out her roommate Hibiki with her school work and tests. Luckley all schools have done away with homework except for when a test was coming up in which case the students still had to do homework after the school day was done for the day.

Some days Selvaria's class would have swim practice and the boys would of course ogle the girls in their swimsuits. But after a few warnings from the teachers and a few fire balls being chucked their way the boys got the message. But teenagers will be teenagers as it wasn't long before boy-girl couples started cropping up here and there. Mostly just the normal sweet school dating as the school staff wouldn't allow and thing more 'serious' then maybe holding hands and the two staying up late at night watching movies in the rec-room and even then only on Fridays and the weekend in which the students were free the two days to relax and have fun until Monday. Some students who really wanted to advance their studies or enjoy themselves spent the time studying or reading in the library and it was during one such Saturday that Selvaria spent her free time reading some of her favorite books when she encountered a boy.

Selvaria sat on a red couch by the window in the libraries second floor reading the book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. A landmark 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founded the town of Macondo, a fictitious town in the country of Colombia.

Selvaria enjoyed the book and others like such as, Anna Karenina, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, A Passage to India, Invisible Man, Don Quixote, Beloved. To name a few, she mainly liked the classics from the twenty first century and back. As Selvaria read her book a brown haired boy in a red shirt and black pants walked up to her.

"Uh hello."

Selvaria just continued to read her book not really carrying what the boy wanted but replied anyway. "Yeah."

The boy nervously rubbed the back of his head as he stared at the beautiful young girl sitting with her book. "Uh umm your pretty and I like you," Selvaria blinked, her cheeks blushing beet red as she looked up to the boy or rather where the boy used to be. Selvaria looked around catching sight of the boy running behind a bookcase and then down the hall, evidently embarrassed at his own proclamation of love. Selvaria just stood there red faced and stunned at the fact she had just gotten her first love confession, and worse still she didn't know who the boy was.

After word in their room Selvaria reluctantly told Hibiki about the event and instantly regretted it as the girl shot out questions like an assault rifle on full auto while getting a little too close for comfort as she questioned Selvaria incessantly. "Um well I think he was wearing a red shirt and had brown hair but i'm not certain?"

"Oh come on you got to have more details then that. What did he sound like? Was he cute? Was he taller than you? Was his voice calm or did he have a stutter? Were there anyone else around who heard him."

Selvaria reeled back from the barrage of questions while also trying to get her head on straight.

"I don't know I was reading a book and didn't look up until after he had uhh said he liked me." Selvaria looked down playing with her thumbs as her heart raced at her own thoughts, Her mind was also a little bit confused as to why some random boy she doesn't even know would just confess to her like that. Thoughts just raced through her mind, Would she like the boy?, why did he run like that?, was he embarrassed as well?, could this all be just a prank by one of the older teenagers putting the boy up to this?, but what if it's real will I like him and even marry him one day?.The last of Selvaria's thoughts caused her to stop and remember her mission. That's right she had a mission to complete, and i'm a VALKYRUR so I can't have a family, not with someone like him, it won't be right or far to him or me.

Hibiki flinched as Selvaria slump her shoulders and looked depressed all of a sudden."Huh Selvi is something wrong?"

"Nothing," Selvaria replied crestfallen as she rolled onto her bed and looked at the wall as Hibiki's face turned to one of concern.

"Hey what's the matter? i've never seen you like this before," Hibiki asked sensing her friends sudden shift in emotional state.

"Im fine I... I just need some time alone to think ok."

Hibiki blinked staring at her roommate/BFF for a moment before leaving, not wanting to agitate her anymore.

Hibiki left the room and walked through the building until reaching the nurses office. "Um miss Bray," She spoke as the nurse of swedish descent looked up from her desk.

"Yes Hibiki anything wrong?" the blond haired blue eyed nurse asked.

"Um I have a question," Hibiki asked as she walked in and sat at nurse Bray's desk. "Whats a Valkyrur?"

The nurse who was obviously in the know flinched at that word and maybe a little shocked that a young student knew of it. "Where did you hear that word from?"

Hibiki was suspicious now and wanted to know more, keeping her own emotions and thoughts in check so as not to arouse suspicion she continued the conversation and was lucky nurse Bray was a normal Terran and not a psiker. "Um I think I heard some of the school staff talking about it. I didn't hear much other then the word. I was just interested in what it ment."

Nurse Bray studied Hibiki a moment before deciding to explain the matter. "Well it wasn't mean't to be explained to you until the latter classes but since you already know and are curious I may as well tell you. Back during the first Zerg war in the 21st century there was a very powerful psiker called a Valkyrur. You could say she was the progenitor of all psikers, even you."

Hibiki blinked in astonishment her mouth a gap. "You mean all, I mean me and everyone else here at the academy are related by blood?! "

Nurse Bray gave an amused laugh at Hibiki's reaction. "In a way. Yes. You see back during the war there was a company that was able to use the blood of the Valkyrur in gene therapy to give psionic powers to many other people. But they were all woman or young girls because of rejection problems. The Valkyrur was a woman after all."

Hibiki made a thoughtful face as she thought over this new information. "But their are plenty of boys that have psionic power?"

Nurse Bray gave a sigh at that. "Yes well even after all the research that's been put into trying to understand it there's still many things about the genetics and nature of psionic powers that we know little about."

Hibiki hummed sounding satisfied at that explanation "Ok. Thanks miss Bray."

Nurse Bray smiled. "I'm happy to have been able to answer your questions."

Hibiki left the nurses office and walked back to her room her mind in deep thought. 'How did Selvi know about the Valkyrur, and what's a Fractal-verse?,' Hibiki thought a little angry at herself for accidently reading her friends private thoughts, but it did open a door of mystery. Hibiki decided to keep this new information to herself for the moment. Luckily the teachers don't read the minds of students and the other students get punished if they read the minds of another student without their permission.

A few days after that the boy who confessed to Selvari was discovered to be named Justin Alter and was as it seems infatuated with her quit a lot. It seems he had watched Selvaria during PE classes and had started having feeling's for her. Selvaria was taken off guard when he confessed his love for her a second time and in ear shot of other people which included some teachers and Hibiki who after that did her best to set the two up on dates of which there were no school rules that forbid dating just no... physically intimate relationships.

* * *

 **New Horizon station**

 **Date,** August 12th Tuesday 2290

 **Location,** Biolab 2 room S-94

The months passed by quickly as Aliasse settled into her new job as head of operations at the NeoCortex research facility at New Horizon station. She decided that the Simulant Zerg project would be useful and had its funding doubled with one message to the CEO of the company Ellen Reid, while also sending a first draft recommendation for her own Spartan program. Ellen Reid's reply message gave Aliasse the green light for the program and a hefty funding of 2 billion credits just to start with.

The months passed by after that as Aliasse and her new colleague's conducted their research into the bio enhancements. Dr Hadaway had the bright idea to use nanomachines to change the molecular makeup of the bones, muscles, nerves and brain matter of the clone test subjects which came from UNSC marines who volunteered their blood and consented to the project. The bone augmentations were first, after all it would be pointless if the skeleton was broken by it's own muscles.

The scientists spent two months just programming and redesigning the nanomachines that would be used in the augmentation process. Then another few months were spent perfecting the process which worked rather similarly to fossilization in that the nanomachines remodeled the minerals in the bones cellular structure like carbon atoms to form a carbon nano fiber weave between the bones cells to hold them together if they fracture which would also help in the healing process. Then ceramics were integrated into the bones greatly strengthening them. Then the muscles were remodeled in the same way and were changed into a organic version of CNT muscle fiber which also had nanoscale blood tubs that sent new materials into any damaged areas to affect repairs more quickly. The next step was to augment the nerves and increase the speed at which they could send information along the body. Unfortunately that augmentation was less testably what with the clones being brain dead husks, but the date gained was still a boon to the project.

After the initial successes the UTG and UNSC sent representatives of their groups to keep watch on the project (for both legal and moral reasons) both of which gave Aliasse and her group the go a head to allow the use of nano-puppeteering as the term is used. Nanopuppetering is when nanomachines are used to make the bodies of the clones move around by sending nerve signals from the nanomachines in the brain to the body and was the the next step in using clones for research. The UNSC also sometimes uses clones being puppeteered as enemies during live fire targets or for training medics in the field with real Terran bodies. The use of clones in anything was at first a hot issue for people but with the threat of the Zerg ever present and after the attack on Reach the Observers of both the Sol system and the Epsilon Eridani system looked at legal and moral ramifications of using clones in biomedical research and military testing ultimately allowing it, but only so long as someone over saw how the clones were used. And the clones were also never allowed to develop personalities as that would effectively make them people and the research or testing illegal.

Aliasse along with the representative watch dogs from the UTG and UNSC watched from the observation room as ten male and ten female clones were undergoing the augmentation process which will become much more complicated in the future as more advanced types of augmentations are developed for the Spartans.

"Well this should be the full augmentation developed so far. I hope it works this time," Muttered the UTG rep in her blue gray dress.

"It better."chirped the UNSC rep in his formal military uniform. "They've gone through FIVE thousand clones already, It's not cheap to make them you know."

The UTG rep turned to the UNSC rep. "And way are you reminding me when it's the government that supplies the research materials?"

The UNSC rep turned to meet the glare of the UTG rep. "Research materials! really that's the what you think of clones of our finest soldiers?"

Aliasse sighed as the two continued their bickering which they had started the day the two saw each other. "Just get married already," she let out garnering a glance and a raised eyebrow from of the two reps.

The two reps looked like they were about to saw something when the intercom barked to life.

~Stage two of augmentation starting in five seconds,~ Isabel announced from in the augmentation-room.

One of the reps shook their heads while the other let out sigh as they gave the experiment their full attention.

In the room next door a dozen scientists in white plastic lab suits watched and monitored the clones in detail from the display screens on the high tech med-tables they lay upon and the date pads in their hands. After a short time the muscle augmentation began and continued for a good hour while the two reps took turns getting coffee and going to the washroom while the process continued. After a full two hours the augmentations to the clones muscles were completed and one of the white suited scientists walked up to the window.

~All green. The clone bodies are accepting the augmentations. Were moving on to the next step in the process,~ his voice said over the intercom.

"Well another success. Hope the augmentations don't interfere with each other this time," the UNSC rep said as he eyed the monitiers to his left showing the clones life signs.

"That was the main problem in the previous tests," the UTG rep noted as she sipped her coffee.

Aliasse made a telling nod and turned to the two reps. "I agree but this should be the final polishing of the process. We have made great advancements in the augmentations in the past few months.

"Hmm we'll see," replied the UTG rep.

Aliasse turned her gaze back to the med room and continued watching as the Nerve augmentations continued. The clones jerked and twitched as their nerves were remolded and improved with new superconducting minerals added to the nerve and brain cell structure that created a superconducting fibrification of the neural Dendrites altering and improving the bioelectricity nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction which allowed for a marked 300% increase in subject reflexes, at least in the simulations.

After another hour the clones stopped twitching and jerking as the augmentations to their nerves and brain stopped.

"I just had a thought," the UTG rep chirped. "If we can make clones and give then the augmentations then why can't we just train them to fight as well. So long as they aren't undergoing anymore testing or experiments it should be fine legally?"

That got an angry glare from the UNSC rep."So what you want to make little wind up toy soldiers to fight your battles? Real wars are fought by real people and real soldiers not mass produced vat grown clones that didn't choose to fight. Even though I can understand where you're coming from and imagine the tactical advantages, THAT idea is just morally wrong. Although I can see it being used in desperation."

Aliasse decided to intervene before the two started arguing again. "If mass produced soldiers is what you mean then the other project is a good substitute."

The two reps turned to Aliasse and thought, puting the Simulant Zerg project into consideration.

"Hmm well that project does have it's merit's," the UTG rep stated.

"I can see those robotic Zerg being used in live fire combat training." the UNSC rep stated. "Just use a some nanomachine induced illusion to make them look and smell like the real thing and soldiers combat performance against the real Zerg could jump higher along with the survival rate. They could also be used in combat as well, but I doubt they could be mass produced in a way that could match the real Zergs reproduction speed."

"I'm in complete agreement with you Colonel Aims, but you are right in assuming the production of the simulants is far slower than the real Zergs ability to multiply." Aliasse replied. "But DR Hadaway is hard at work fixing that problem as we speak, so maybe in the near future we can have my Spartans and His Simulants fighting together on the battlefield."

The UTG rep gave a small laugh at that last statement.

"And what's so funny miss Nevin?" Colonel Aims asked the snickering woman.

"Oh I just thought it would be an... he he. A interesting sight to see Super soldiers fighting alongside robotic Zerg against the real Zerg that's all."

Both Colonel Aims and Aliasse gave a thought to the idea and both gave a telling shrug. "Well it would be a odd sight to behold."

A short time later the results of the test augmentation were displayed on the screens for them to see. The test was a full success as the augmentations took without any of the debilitating injuries that resulted from the first tests of the augmentation process.

A few minutes later Isabel (now out of her clean suit) entered the observation room and gave Aliasse, Colonel Aims and Briella Nevin a full report in the observation room.

"The augmentations have taken well and have greatly improved the test subjects physical abilities with what limited tests we can perform using the puppeetiering method. However the tests do indicate that the enhancements are holding and have improved strength by hundreds of times. Nerve and muscle reaction speed by 300% improved, estimated, and the bones are now far more resilient and nearly unbreakably in the stress tests we've run."

Briella Nevin the UTG rep sat with her hand together. "Miss Andrewson can we be certain that if this process is repeated on volunteers it will garner the same results with minimal risk?" she asked.

"Miss Nevin the risks can only ever be minimized not completely eliminated. But if you're asking me if we can repeat the process without the risk of injury then the answer is yes. Im confident that the new augmentation process in advanced enough for practical test trials now."

"How many can undergo the augmentation process safely?" asked the colonel as Isabel turned to him.

"If the new facilities in wing 7 are completed then we should be able to put a hundred volunteers through the augmentations all at once."

Briella huffed a voice of concern as she spoke her mind on that matter. "I think we should hold off and see the results of a smaller number of volunteers first before we jump to anything larger."

"I agree," Aliasse stated. "A small volunteer test group to finalize the test phase of the augmentations. Colonel do you have anything else to add?"

The colonel thought a moment before answering. "No."

"Then this meeting is over. Please send your reports when ready."

"I'll give a good report of the augmentation program to UNSC high command," the Colonel stated as he stood up.

"The UTG will be happy to know that this program is far safer then its first tests." miss Nevin said as she left with the colonel.

Once the two reps were out of the room Isabel turned to Aliasse. "So good news all around now that the first step in creating your Spartans is completed right."

Aliasse let out a sigh of relief as she stood up and turned to leave with Isabel following. "Actually this is just the first step in the process. We still need the Mjolnir armor... and a new class of ship to serve as a mobile production, training, maintenance facility and base of operations for the Spartans."

Isabel blinked never being told that part of the plan. "Uh a ship. It would need to be pretty large for all that to fit inside. I'm also guessing it will be a UNSC warship so even bigger for the crew their rooms and all the other things such a warship would need to support itself."

The two woman rounded a corner and entered a elevator. "The UNSC and their contractors can handle the construction."

The elevator hummed to life as it transported the two through the station. "It'll cost a lot and take a few years to build... have you thought all this out beforehand?"

Aliasse gave a huff of agreement. "Yes I have. I've already got a name for the ship."

Isabel raised a eye brow now more curious. "And what name did you pike out. Given the greek theme with the spartans maybe the Argo or maybe the Odyssey... oh is it the Hephaestus since the ship will also produce Spartans and their weapons and equipment. Or maybe the Zeus or a name of one of the greek gods?"

Aliasse gave a chuckle at Isabel's theories. "Those are all fine names. But. The name i've chosen is the UNSC Infinity."

"Infinity?" Isabel repeated with a raised eyebrow. "That's a odd name."

Aliasse smiled as they reached their destination and the elevators doors opened and they entered a long hallway with the space and stars projected on the walls.

"I chose it because it's meant to represent the future that a strong military will open up for Terran kind."

Isabel gave a shrugged at that last comment. "So do you want to conquer the galaxy after we figure out FTL tech."

The half joke made Aliasse stop in her tracks and stare into her co-workers eyes making her a little nervous. "I'm not hateful or racist towards aliens. But with what's happened with the Zerg... what is happening...[sigh] A strong hand is needed. It's like the saying the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt had. Speak softly but carry a big stick."

Isabell blinked with an embarrassing shrug, not remembering that in her history class. "Im sorry miss Aliasse but what does that mean?"

Tilting her head a bit Aliasse answered. "It means be firm, fair and gently, but hold a decisive weapon in reserve, or a strong military if the worst happens."

Isabel snapped a finger realizing the meaning. "Oh you mean the carrot and the stick approach! I thought they sounded familiar."

Aliasse couldn't help but laugh at the comparison. "Hehehe. It's a similar concept but still different."

At that Aliasse continued down the hallway with Isabel jogging a bit to catch up. A few minutes later they reached a room with dozens of armor prototypes lined along the wall to their left. Their design differed from the standard combat BDU the UNSC marines use. They were bulker and had a black under suit with thick plates of armor covering them. Some half built others just striped to the black under suit with no armor.

The two woman approached a group of technicians in back of the room as they worked on a half assembled suit of high tech armor being held up by a group of robotic arms hanging from the ceiling.

Nathaniel Stanton volunteered project lead of project Mjolnir turned around to see his colleague and boss approaching.

* * *

 **Mars,** Northern Hemisphere

 **Location,** Utopia Planitia University and Research College

Utopia Planitia university was built in the year 2152 and was one of the first universities on Mars. It houses and educates over 500 students yearly with many having already graduated from high school. It was a place were the elite intellectuals from all over the Sol system gathered to learn and advance their education, or remain and work in the government funded FTL research project being carried out in a restricted lab under the college.

In the underground research center under the college a japanese man with black hair and brown eyes, worked on a difficult equation relating to the phase states of space and quantum waves as they interacted with large celestial bodies like planets and stars. They had been working on this problem for the past four months and had been stumped by it until now.

"Hah! that looks right. Cygnus check my math and run the simulation."

~Running simulation now mister Fujikawa~ a robotic woman's voice replied from the walls.

For the next two minutes Fujikawa rechecked his work while waiting for the smart AI Cygnus to finish his simulation when a blond british with hazel eyes entered the room holding four coffees in a cup holder in one hand and a bag of food in the other.

"Sorry i'm late the cafetiera was nearly out of the good stuff so they had to get it out of storage and reheat it," Tobias Fleming Shaw said as he approached his co-worker.

"Oh I don't care Tobias I just need the caffeine," Wallace Fujikawa replied as he grabbed one of the coffees and took a experimental sip to test the temperature and not burn his own mouth with the steaming cup. "Aaa that's the good stuff," he said drinking a little more.

"I see you finished the equation," Tobias stated as he looked the digital wall screen up and down.

"Yes and Cygnus is running the simulation now," Fujikawa explained.

"What's it looking like Cygnus?" Tobias asked.

~I don't know yet. let me work,~ the smart AI shot back in a annoyed tone.

Tobias shrugged and took a sip of his own coffee as Fujikawa opened the bag of foot long Subway sandwiches. The two men sat on the couch eating and waited for the AI to finish her work. A hour later long after the coffee and food was gone the AI finally spoke up.

~Calculations completed. Simulation is conclusive. Short FTL jumps of under a light minute are possible even in the gravity well of planetary bodies. However close proximity to stars will present a problem. Estimated 40% loss of jump accuracy,~ the feminine yet robotic voice reported.

"Ah so our theories are finally proven," Fujikawa stated with glee evident in his voice.

"Not until we update software on the prototype ship and test it out. You know how the military is when it comes to preparedness concerning the Zerg" Shaw stated to his colleague

"Yes quit true."Fujikawa admitted " We already completed the prototype Translight Engine a year ago and tested it out with that series of small jumps around the solar system and into dark space. (A area of space between solar systems) It probably would have taken us a much longer to complete the slipstream space drive if we didn't have that ancient warpgate."

Tobias gave a deep sigh. "And I doubt we would have gotten the jump accuracy to a few tens of kilometers. Nor even thought of being able to conduct a short in system FTL jump, That ancient warpgate that connects us to Reach is the main reason we're so far ahead in terms of our knowledge of Slipstream Space."

Wallace Fujikawa nodded "Yes I know. But even after centuries of research it's still a mystery as to who built it. It sure wasn't the Zerg."

Tobias let out a depressed sigh. "I know what you mean. If only we could get a look in the gates control center we could learn so much more."

"Yes but you'er forgetting the Zerg infestation that guards that chamber. It's highly toxic and deadly. I've heard that it can melt neosteel and the booby trap will destroy the control room should anyone try to enter it. The military has had the whole structure on quarantine lockdown since the first settlers colonised Mars," Fujikawa reminded his colleague.

"True."Tobias admitted. "But once travel between Epsilon Eridani and the Sol system becomes common they will know doubt try to enter the control chamber."

"Are you sure?" Fujikawa wondered. "I'm not too sure the UTG will risk loosing a near instantaneous means of travel between the two star systems."

Tobias slumped in realisation of the military advantage that brings. "Right right. The military always like doing things faster. So let's get back to work then shall we."

The two scientists and Cygnus continued their work in checking and rechecking the calculations in the software program that would allow the prototype FTL ship named the Enterprise (Named after a famous science fiction ship from a really famous and old TV show) the ability to make short light second or light minute jumps for a quick escape should they encounter any Zerg or anything else alien and hostile when they make their first trip to the Alpha Centauri system which is the closest star system to the Sol system and has always been a destination for the first working FTL capable ship.

A week passed as tests and more tests were conducted until everyone who had a say in the matter was confident in the crews safety. And then the day finally arrived in which the Enterprise left it's special space docks in Mars orbit. The Terran ship that was to be the first to make it's way to another solar system ignited it's fusion engines and slowly edged it's way out of the docks.

The ship had a elongated hexagon shaped main hull that ended in a small saucer shaped bow in the front and at the aft there were three large fusion drives with the area between them being taken up by the Translight Engine designed and built by Dr Tobias Fleming Shaw, Dr. Wallace Fujikawa and their team. Along the left and right sides of the central hull area were four secondary hulls smaller than the main hull. These extra hull extensions held extra cargo and equipment to repair and maintain the ship for its journey. The ship also had two large habitation rings one near the bow behind the saucer and one at the aft in front of the engines. They held the ships aquaponic and hydroponic gardens and also held an array of small plants that help the ships life support system produce oxygen and serves as a place the crew can relax in to help with their mental stress on a long journey.

The experimental white ship glided out of it's docks and accelerated away as everyone who helped build it watched silently from the observation windows of the station. If it was known by the public that such a ship existed there would have been reporters and hundreds of people on the station watching the ship leave but for the moment the UTG is keeping the nature of the ship and the fact FTL tech had been developed a secret until it's perfected and they scout the surrounding star systems around Sol and the Epsilon Eridani system for any Zerg presence.

On the bridge of the Enterprise sat captain Cliff Pesaro in his captains chair as his four man bridge crew typed away on their display consoles making sure the ship was working fine after it's final series of fine tuning.

To the captains left were Vivi Osbourne the chief navigator and Georgie Bartoš the ships specialist in slipstream space in which the ship will be traveling in for most of its journey. And to the captains right were Diana Mendoza the ships chief scientist and Liselotte Fortuyn the ships botanist who was currently checking the ships life- support system and the two ring shaped gardens which she was incharge of.

Two members of the ship's crew were elsewhere. Felim McDonald the ships chief engineer was in the main engine room making sure there weren't any problems with the ships Translight Engine drive which will allow the ship to not only transition to slipstream space but to be able to do so in short bursts that will allow the ship to jump distances of tens of thousands or millions of miles in a mere moments. A strategic advantage if the Zerg are encountered any point along the journey. One of the last members of the small ships crew was Anna Kelly the ships chief medical officer who was currently in the medbay checking the auto surgery robot along with the supplies again to help calm her nerves from the idea of being ripped into another dimension that's even more empty the normal space.

 **[Bridge]**

"Are we on course," captain Pesaro asked.

A moment later Vivi answered him. "A little adjusting and... there. Were on course now captain."

The captain gave a smile his ship was finally ready to make its first inter solar system jump. The ship had made short jumps traveling across the Sol star system and to void space just outside the Oort cloud but never any farther, even though the ship itself was fully capable of such the brass in UTG didn't want to take any chances with the Terrans species first faster than light capable ship which was held off from making its maiden voyage to Alpha centauri just to upgrade the technology such as miniaturizing the translight drive so it could be mounted on a smaller ship. Improving jump accuracy and developing the ability to make small jumps across a few dozen light minutes which the military really wanted as the strategic advantages such abilities allow are too good to pass up. Captain Pesaro didn't like the idea of his crew and ship being lab rats for the military even though he himself was a former UNSC ships captain. And because of that he could at least understand the gains of testing experimental tech before mass producing it for the fleet and civilian use.

"Good. let's get going then. Activate the slipstream drive."

~Roger captain~ answered the ship's final crew member the smart AI Pixel.

"Slipspace drive is good on my end all lights are green for drive activation," Georgie Bartoš said as he continued to watch his screens.

~Slipspace drive is spinning up, so to speak. All green here~ Felim reported from engineering.

~Final system checks are done. Final trajectory and course corrections completed. Ready when you are captain,~ Pixel reported having rechecked everyone's work in mere seconds.

Captain Cliff Pesaro felt on edge as this was the last time any of them would see their home solar system for a long time and even though the time for the journey was calculated to be a few weeks to a few months. Slipspace was odd in that the exact time of a journey was different every time, some times by a few minutes and at others a few hours. The trial tests of the slipspace drive were clear proof of that so the exact time it would take was still unknown but still everyone on board volunteered for the journey. They understood that it was the biggest step for Terran kind since first colonising the Sol and Epsilon Eridani systems.

With great pride captain Pesaro gave the order. "Begin slipspace jump."

A moment later the white ship began to glow and accelerate faster and faster until the front bow was shining bright white and an instant later the ship slipped from the view of it's observers and disappeared.

On the observation deck of the docking station the two scientists who made this leap in technology possible continued to stare at the screen showing the spot where the first extrasolar slipspace jump started.

"Were definitely getting nobel prizes for this when it all goes public," Tobias Fleming Shaw stated.

"Oh most definitely." Wallace Fujikawa replied with a smirk. "I wonder though."

"Hmm," Tobies hummed as he turned to his colleague.

"Will they name the translight drive after us?. The Tobias and Wallace translight drive?!"

Tobias brock out into a small laughing fit at that joke. "Hehehehe ah ha ha ha ah. My good friend I do believe you got the names wrong, they'll name it the Fujikawa-Shaw translight engine."

"You think so? "Fujikawa remarked." well I guess it doesn't really matter in the long run. Its past noon already. Want to get a bit to eat at Olympus mons restaurant."

Tobias smiled at that willing to spend money on the most expensive restaurant on Mars after all their accomplishments. "Yes actually. Lets make it a group event and invite everyone."

"A good idea, we didn't do all the work."

Tobias and Wallace called over to their other colleagues who had also come to the launching ceremony to see their creation off. The twenty of them then made their way to the shuttle docks and took a craft to Olympia. A city built directly inside the extinct shield volcano Olympus mons and was the biggest city on Mars. And home to the most expensive and lavish things one could buy on the red planet including food.

 **Chapter End**


	15. Chapter 15

**Dimension custom** Dark Souls under-verse

 **Firelink shrine**

 **In the land of Lordran firelink shrine was a beacon, a haven of rest for those weary of the mindless hollows roaming the land. And currently the destination of a giant crow holding Noobzilla in its claws. A crestfallen knight resting at the shrine watched as the fires of the bonfire crackled and snapped. The warm glow warming the area as he noticed the sound of flapping wings up above. Looking up the knight saw the giant raven swooping down to the shrine, dropping off a armored knight who proceeded to roll across the area until slamming into the tree landing upside down legs hanging above himself like in a cartoon.**

 **"Aaahh! that's not how I remember the landing ugh going."**

 **Noobzilla slumped to the ground and stood back up dusting himself off as he meet the studious eyes of the man to his left watched him.**

 **"Well, what do we have here? a new arrival," the crestfallen knight said. "** **Let me guess. Fate of the Undead, right? Well, you're not the first."**

 **"Yeah no shit sherlock," Noobzilla replied as he looked up at the giant crow resting atop the ruins. "Does that thing always give such hard landing?"**

 **"Hmm not that rough if I recall correctly. Never seen someone go rolling like that before hehe."**

 **Noobzilla turned to the crestfallen knight and sighed. "Welp may as well ring those bells. And yes I know about them so don't waste your breath."**

 **"Hehehe wouldn't dream of it. Now off you go. Do find a nice spot to go hollow in fare from here."**

 **Noobzilla stared at the knight a moment. "Thanks."**

 **Noobzilla proceeded to wander around the area collecting a few lost souls of undead a bit of humanity and five fire bombs along with 4 Cracked Red Eye Orbs a Morning Star mace, 1 Talisman, and a Homeward Bone. None of which very useful.**

 **Noobzilla looked down at the graveyard where the freaking skeletons were roaming about.**

 **"Sigh. Welp here goes nothing."**

 **Noobzilla proceeded to jump down to the graveyard and run around like a mad man avoiding the skeletons while collecting a few more undead souls and a winged spear all while avoiding the damn bone heads as best as he could as they tried to corner and swarm him.**

 ***Gasping* "Ah %*$# you guys," Noobzilla yelled as he ran into the ruins where the skeletons ended their chase.**

 ***Deep breath* "Ah those guys are even worse then I remember. I'm going to need a blessed weapon or whatever there called before I go back that way again."**

 **Taking a swig of estus Noobzilla continued on his way up to the undead burg area fighting off the two hollows on a small area while avoiding the fire bombs being thrown at him from above. Onch the two were dealt with a third hollow with a shield and longsword ran at him from the rearmost spot near the lower part of the stone aqueduct. As the hollow charged it raise it's sword and swung only to be parried by a deft shield swing by Noobzilla who impaled the hollow and kicked it off his sword before jumping back barley avoiding another fire bomb from above as it landed on the downed hollow causing it to catch fire and turn into a burning hollow.**

 **"Oh! THAT! is not right!" Noobzilla exclaimed as the** **burning hollow stood up it screamed a blood curdling cry with its eyes and mouth afire and started madly swinging its sword at nearly twice as fast as before.**

 **"Not $#% &ing* right at all!" Noobzilla exclaimed as he ran back down to the stairs to firelink to catch a breath and think. Unfortunately the burning hollow chased him down the stairs and to the clearing at their base.**

 **"What hell!? he's following me," Noobzilla complained as he blocked the frenzied hollows attack's as best he could. The heat of its flames barely tolerable at such close range. Another strike and Noobzilla made a countered kicking the burning hollow away a bit then quick switching to the winged spear, impaling the hollow and pushed it off the cliff.**

 **"Ah hoo that was tough. Note to self never left a fire bomb hit a hollow. Don't know if that happens to all of them or if it's a special case for certain ones?"**

 **After taking a minute to rest Noobzilla continued up to the undead burg fighting his way through the rest of the hollows and the giant ass rats in the aqueduct before arriving at a small flat open area with two hollows. One with a axe in back and the other holding a sword and shield in front.**

 **The first hollow charged and was parried easly by Noobzilla who then roundhouse kicked the undead to the ground and jumped on top of it before bringing his sword to its neck beheading the hollow in one stroke that also scraped the blade against the stone ground.**

 **"Shit!" Noobzilla exclaimed seeing the blade was dulled.**

 **Before he could do anything else the second hollow attacked forcing him into a defensive stance as each heavy axe blow forced Noobzilla back as he two handed the shield. Eventually he backed up all the way to the stone wall and had nowhere to go. The hollow raised it's axe for another strike when it's intended target side stepped avoiding the axe as it smashed into the stone wall. Taking the oppertinitey Noobzilla quick selected his long sword and back stabbed the hollow and kicked it off on to the wall and slashed it's back a few times finishing it off.**

 **"Damn going to have to watch where I aim at," Noobzilla berated himself over the damaged blade before proceeding to smash through the barrels and drop down to the lower area that lead to a much larger area than in the original game. It had four upper and lower levels all filled with hollows. The close quarters was a pain but not unworkable as the tight areas also kept the hollows from surrounding him. After a bit of trouble Noobzilla returned to the first area in the undead burg and proceeded to enter the fog gate and went up the stairs through the house up to the bridge above where the giant drake was supposed to land and fly off again but it didn't happen.**

 **Instead what Noobzilla got was four shield and spear hollows in a roman style phalanx formation two in front and another two behind them.**

 **"Oh shit this is trouble."**

 **It was a understatement as the phalanx formation of hollows was a tough nut to crack but at least there were only four of them. With their shields raised and spears aimed at the unhollow the undead soldiers charged.**

 **Thinking fast Noobzilla instead of bringing his shield up switched to his two swords and parried the first spear away as he rolled into the blind spot right at the hollows feet and swung his sword cleanly slicing through the** **hollows ankles and dropping the two.**

 **Moving fast Noobzilla killed the two disabled hollows and Repeated the tactic quickly killing the other two hollows and proceeding on his way up a short stairway up to a more open area where four hollows were waiting behind wooden barricades along with two more armed with crossbows on a small buildings roof overlooking the area.**

 **Two of the hollows charged weapons raised. Side stepping Noobzilla dodged one as it passed and bashed it's head with the tip of his shield dropping the hollow in one blow. The other attacked only for its prey to back out of range just before the attack landed. Noobzilla brought up his shield to block a pair of crossbow bolts before turning his attention back to the hollow in front of him, parrying another sword swing he impaled the hollow and this time instead of pushing it off his sword he quick selected his second sword and beheaded the hollow. A moment later the first hollow was back up and swinging, it's blade bounched off Noobzillas shield and he took the opportunity to slice at the hollows exposed legs stunning it long enough to behead it, which is quickly becoming the go to way of one shotting the undead hollows.**

 **Noobzilla brought his shield up again just in time to block another bolt attack from the hollows on top the building. A moment later another pair of hollows ran out from their cover and attacked only to be defeated again by Noobzilla who was more than a little tired of the two crossbow shooting hollows at this point.**

 **Now that the way was clear Noobzilla ran up the set of stairs to the rooftop and shield bashed one of the annoying hollows before roundhouse kicking it over the crenellation and down to its doom. The other hollow was dealt with just as quickly. Finally in the clear for the moment he walked into a nearby building and lite the bonfire and rested a moment, after word Noobzilla exited the building to once again find the same enemies in the same place as before confirming that the enemies respawn after resting at a bonfire just like the game.**

 **"Hmm well may as well do some grinding."**

 **Noobzilla proceeded to clear the area again and again collecting souls which was the currency of this world and a valuable resource to level up and upgrade and forge weapons and armor.**

 **{-ONE-WEEK-LATER-}**

 **"...*snoring*...Ugh! uh ahh *yawn* oh man how long have I been sleeping," Noobzilla asked noone in particular as he woke up from his nap next to the bonfire. Stretching a bit Noobzilla got up and looked at his souls counter which was now in the tens of thousands.**

 **Deciding it was time to move on, he left the bonfire and once again cleared the area of enemies before going into the nearby building and down to the undead merchant to buy some things before using the remaining souls to level up.**

 **"Well now... you seem to have your whits about you, hmm? Then you are a welcome customer. I trade in souls. Everything's for sell, heheheh. Just don't be going hollow on me yeah hear. Im now slouch and i'll be damned if i'm going to loose my souls."**

 **"Understood. Now what's you got?"**

 **Noobzilla went through the selection of items buying a Short Bow and lot's of arrows along with a Repairbox, Firebombs, and some Throwing Knife's.**

 **"Thank you kindly. Nee hee hee hee!"**

 **After returning to the bonfire Noobzilla leveled up a using nearly all of his souls and almost doubling all of his stats but focusing on more Vitality, Endurance, and Strength then the other's and ignoring the Faith state altogether for the moment. Moving on Noobzilla next used the short bow to eliminate the hollows throwing fire bombs on a nearby rooftop from the local bonfire and then aggroing the enemies in the next building over and got two hollows to come out which made them easy to pick off along with the one remaining inside. Moving on Noobzilla eliminated all the hollows in the area before moving on to a building and through it to get some golden pine resin in a chest overlooking a walkway connected to a stair way all of which was far larger than what he remembered.**

 **After taking out that annoying sniper in the small tower next up was the hollows in the walkway, aggroing them with the short bow and taking them out one at a time was easy enough, and next was getting past that fire barrel rolling down the stairs and the hollow who pushed it then into the tower.**

 **Noobzilla stood in the room at the base of the large tower looking at the door that lead to Havel the Rock and the shortcut to darkroot garden and the valley of drakes.**

 **"Soon Havel soon, i'll deal with you and get to my little grinding area... or die horribly?" Noobzilla contemplated before looking up the stairs. "But first i'm going to deal with the Taurus Demon up stairs... and meet Solaire." Noobzilla then turned to face the camera. "Hello again. Hope your enjoying my story or... well... the story of Ellen's universe im seeing with my imagination. Yeah the Fractal-verse is still weird. Anyway the next chapter has abit about Selvaria and if any of you are thinking she has a major secret you are correct. But i'm not telling so just read the story. Now if you'll excuse me I have a Taurus Demon to slay. Oh and i'm changing the formatting of communication's text from ~radio~ to [radio] and adding *sound effect* hope you got that."**

* * *

 **Chapter 15**

 **Rise of the Spartans part 4**

* * *

 **Date,** August 19th Tuesday 2290

 **Location,** Slipstream space, in route to Alpha Centauri star system.

A week passed since the first faster than light capable starship in Terran history named the Enterprise and her crew began their journey to scout Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Sol the Terrans home system. The crew had had little in the way of trouble in the dark void of slipstream space but the ships local expert Georgie Bartoš was busy almost all the time running tests or conducting experiments in the alternate dimensional plain. The twisted up and compressed nature of the dimension's space was what allowed for faster than light travel and exploring it's long term effects on the Terran body was the job of ships doctor Anna who was currently giving Felim a checkup.

"Any dizziness, nausea or headache?" The doc asked.

"No nothing," Felim answered from his seat on the med table.

"Hmm. From what I can tell no one aboard is having any kind of problems from the extended time in slipstream space or the radiation from the slipspace drive." Anna stated as she jotted down the results of the checkup. "So how's the slipstream drive holding up?"

"Oh it's just fine so don't worry. It's only activated when we enter or exit slipstream space so it's not been on this whole time. Although I would have to say it's a lot more advanced than what I would have thought for a prototype."

Doc Anna tilted her head at that. "How so?"

Felim scratched the back of his neck. "Hmm. Well for one thing it's much more energy efficient then what I would have thought. Exits jumps are accurate to a few hundred thousand of miles of the target point, which isn't that big of a deviation in the vastness of space, and with that last update patch from Shaw and Fujikawa we can make rapid jumps into and out of slipstream space allowing us to make short jumps from one point in normal space to another but only once or twice. It must be from all the research put into the slipstream gate's on Mars and Reach."

Anna placed her medical tablet over her belly and crossed her arms. "Huh is that so. I guess I don't really understand much about this ship. I just focus on keeping everyone healthy. Mentally and physically"

Felim chuckled at that. "Hehehe. Well I guess everyone on board are all the type to focus on our own jobs first and relationships second."

Anna raised a eyebrow at that last remark. "Relationships ?"

Felim hesitated. "Uh I uh that came out wrong. I didn't mean-" Felim was cut off as the ships intercom chirped to life with the voice of he ships resident smart AI Pixel.

[Slipstream jump back to normal space in five minutes. Everyone not working please gather on the bridge.]

Looking to one another the doctor and engineer shared a moment of joy and apprehension at the fact they have arrived at their destination which could be swarming with Zerg.

"So uh are we going to join the others," Anna asked.

"Yeah we should uh get going."

 **Bridge**

Most of the ship's crew gathered in the bridge which made the room somewhat cramped as everyone had their eyes on the main monitor that wrapped around the wall in a half circle floor to ceiling.

"Transition to normal space in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." Georgie Bartoš stated as the ship shook a little and the empty black screen that they all had been looking at for the last week flashed into a small nova of blue and silver light and then shifted into a normal space view of stars and nebula as they shifted from slipstream space to normal space.

"Vivi?" the captain asked the navigator as she was fiercely typing away at her terminal and swiped date packets across her screen.

"Star maps and system date match. Were at Alpha centauri."

The bridge erupted in celebration and joy as the crew congratulated each other, becoming the first Terrans and AI to reach another star system by ship.

"Ok ok people focus we have a job to do so everyone back to your posts," the captain stated as everyone calmed down and returned to their normal duty stations. The Enterprise wasn't a large ship so it only took a few short moments for everyone to get back to their stations.

"Pixel activate the stealth camo and Felim put the engines into stealth mode," captain Pesaro ordered.

Outside the hull of the Enterprise wavered and shifted it's color to match the background of the space around it reflecting the blackness of space like a mirror and the light of distant stars and nebula. While the ships fusion drives shifted to low output mode and dulled in brightness as the energy signature became a fraction of what it used to be.

Slowly the ship traveled farther into the star system, closer to the binary stars of Alpha Centauri A and B. A few days passed as the crew were hard at work gathering all the date they can get. Diana Mendoza the ships astronomy expert was partly relieved that she finally had something to do and was partly stressed as she now had to analyze as much detail about the star system as she could in a unknown amount of time, for if the Zerg were in the system and attacked then they would have to return to Sol. Fortunately nothing happened for the three day trip to the inner star system where the first planet was encountered. The planet was a gas giant roughly the size of jupiter but it was a dark blue color and it's orbit took it below or above the orbital plan of the stars Alpha Centauri A and B so normal planet detecting methods from Earth couldn't have found it making it a pleasant surprise. The crew spent a day orbiting the gas giant analysing its chemical composition and fourteen moons before continuing own their way farther into the system.

After another two days they finally reached Proxima Centauri b and started analysing its surface using a dozen small basketball sized satellites launched into orbit. The new satellite network quickly found that the planet was as everyone suspected a uninhabitable rock much like Mercury back in Sol, blasted by too much solar wind for life to develop. But it was rich in resources as the satellites chemical spectroscopes identified many useful minerals across the surface of the planet. But as the analysis of the planet reached it's fourth hour a certain chemical signature showed on the date screens of the bridge.

[Captain!] Pixel stated in a worried tone.

"Yes Pixel. Whats wrong."

[I've discovered Creep on the planet's surface.]

Creep the one word everyone was dreading to hear. The bridge crew stopped their work and glanced at each other before the captain gave his orders.

"Location?"

[It's on the southern hemisphere and the size of the north-american continent. Coordinates 8.7832° South 55.4915° West]

Captain Pesaro looked at the screen showing the planet and shook his head in disbelief.

"How did we miss something that big?"

"We started analysing the planet at the north pole and worked our way south as the satellites changed their orbits." Vivi answered the captains question.

"What do we do captain? "Diana asked from her astronomy station.

The captain tapped his finger on his chairs arm rest a few times thinking until he reached a decision. "Focus all satellites on the Creep and analyse the topography. I want as much detail about that area as possible."

The crew went to work reshifting the sat networks orbits and analysing the Creep covered land mass. In just a few minutes the screens changed to show a landscape covered in gary purple Creep and armored bio structures. All arranged in concentric ring formations that consisted of defensive crawlers, Hives, Lairs, Hatchery's, along with massive armored domes each a mile across and every other type of zerg structure. Across the landscape millions of Zerg of all types, from Zerglings to Hydralisks to Roaches and Queens to Ultralisks milled about the land as Overlords, Overseers, Mutalisks, Wyverns Guardians and Harbingers swarmed the skys forming massive clouds that all but covered the landscape in certain places.

"Holy!... that... that's a lot of Zerg down there" Georgie Bartoš exclaimed voicing what everyone was feeling.

"Captain what now? " asked botanist Liselotte as everyone continued staring at the main screen.

"We continue to get intelligence for however long we can until the Zerg show hostility. Then we jump out and return to Mars."

Everyone gave a resigned sigh and returned to their work as they continued analyzing the date from the surface and mapped the locations of all the Zerg structures while 'trying' to count the number of Zerg on the surface, a job which Pixel was far more suited to. The hours ticked by as the crew of the Enterprise got as much date as they could concerning the Zerg holdings on the planet but after the sixth hour passed the Zerg on the surface started moving. Hundreds of Wyverns and Overseers started rushing up from the surface towards the Satellites in orbit and started shooting them down in quick succession. It happened so quickly the Enterprise crew could barely react.

"Oh shit Sat's four and five are down. Nine and ten are gone too." Vivi warned as Pixel gave a proximity warning that turned out to be a Behemoth warping nearly right on top of them.

"Get us out of here on the double," Captain Pesaro ordered as they accelerated away.

Georgie typed commands into the slipspace drive control and moments later the ship transitioned into slipstream space for five seconds before jumping back to normal space landing them a few hundred million miles from the Zerg infested planet.

"Report!" the captain ordered.

[Systems are green captain,] ships Engineer Felim reported.

[It doesn't appear we sustained any damage. I suggest beginning the warp back to Sol before the Zerg decide to follow us captain,] Pixel stated.

The captain looked around the bridge as everyone else all had the same thoughts.

"Agreed. Georgie get us out of here." Pesaro ordered.

[Got it. Bout damn time.]

A few moments later the ship jumped back into slip space.

As they made the return voyage back to the Sol system the crew of the Enterprise continued to look through all the date they were able to gather so far. From the analysis the planet Proxima Centauri b although infested with Zerg seems to have major deposits of valuable minerals and could be a major resource world if the Zerg presence was up rooted.

"Pixel whats your thoughts concerning the Zerg forces on the Proxima b," captain Pesaro asked.

[It's the largest concentration of Zerg ever recorded. It would take a considerable military effort to eliminate it and not just in space but a invasion on the surface as well.]

"Can't the UNSC just nuke the damn monsters from orbit?" astronomy expert Diana asked leaning back in her chair.

"Im sure a fleet hitting them all at once would do a lot of damage but it's not like they Zerg will just sit there and take it," Vivi stated.

[And then there's the issue of their deep underground hives.] Felim cut in. [I heard that during the first war in the twenty first century they had armored underground hives that were highly resistant to ground penetrating missiles.]

Everyone thought over their options as they continued their trip back to Sol but it didn't look good. Even if the UNSC managed to push the Zerg forces off Proxima Centauri b it would be at great losses. New weapons and tactics would need to be employed if it would be worth taking the planet let alone the Alpha Centauri star system as a whole.

* * *

 **Date,** September 10th, Wednesday 2290

 **Location,** Psi-academy, girls dorm

It was another beautiful sunny day on Reach as the bell rang and classes let out. Selvaria and Hibiki left their classroom along with their new tag along Justin Alter the boy who had a crush on Selvaria. As it turns out he was in the same class as them in the rear row and always had a view of Selvaria just two seats down from him. The three friends walked out of the building with all the other students and into the flowered courtyard between the buildings where a few trees and rows of garden floors sprouted.

"Hmm *stretching arms* well classes are out for the day what do the two of you want to do?" Selvaria asked.

Justin raised a hand. catching the girls attention. "Well if the two of you are up for it I could show you a awesome place to swim."

Hibiki being the skeptic put her hands to her hips. "Oh really?. In September. It's getting colder this time of year and the school only has a indoor pool."

"Yeah, but i'm talking about a heated, indoor swimming pool at a resort in the mountains nearby. It's a winter resort hotel but it's open year round."

"Where is said hotel?" Selvaria asked now taking interest at the words heated pool.

Justin turned to Selvaria. "Like I just said in the nearby mountains, but we need permission from the principal to go that far away from the academy."

"If you've been there before what's it like?" Hibiki asked.

Justin turned back to Hibiki hesitating a bit and rubbing the back of his neck. "Well... uh... it's nice. From what i've seen."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hibiki asked now suspicious.

"Well... I... uh never... actually been there in person before. I've only been to the place in my astral form."

"Oh!" Selvaria let out. "I almost forgot about that out of body ghost thing you can do."

Hibiki just stared at Justin her arms crossed with a death glare aimed at him. "Pervert!" she said deadpan.

Justin started to defend himself but stuttered as his face flushed red. "I... I just... went there to to... train my pow...powers tha... that's all I swear."

"Hehehehe she's just messing with you Justin. "Selvaria explained as she turned serious with a dark intimidating expression on her face. "But seriously If I find out you've been looking at other girls when where supposed to be dating, I... will... kill... you."

"Yes ma'am," Justin gave a stressed reply.

Both girls broke out laughing as the Justin looked like he had been turned to stone and might pee himself. Having fun at the boys expense has become a pass time for the two girls and Selvaria started it with the hope the boy would just give up on his pursuit of her but no matter what she does to him he just follows her around like a puppy. It's gotten really annoying but somehow the boys persistence has started to make Selvaria think he has more than just a childish crush on her.

Making their way to the principle's office, the thought of someone truly loving her made Selvaria blush.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Yes come in," the Principle said as he continued his paperwork.

The door opened and three students entered his office stopping in front of his desk. The room looked bar with the exception of a few book cases, the principles desk, two chairs in front of it and a few pictures and cabinets along the walls. The principle himself was wearing a black suit and had full beard with his brown hair cut short.

"Um mister Sinclair could we ask you for some time outside the academy?" Selvaria asked.

Principle Sinclair clasped his hands together as he stared at the three students. "And where are the three of you going?"

Hibiki stepped forward. "Um we would like to go to a nearby resort hotel on a nearby mountain." *gestures to Justin* "Justin here tells us there's a nice indoor swimming pool their."

Principle Sinclair hummed a moment before replying. "I know where your talking about. I've been there before on vacation a few times. So long as you follow school rules concerning you abilities and are back before 9:00 PM you can go."

"Thanks you sir. We'll be back before it gets that late," Selvaria thanked as the three left.

A moment later in the hall.

"Wow he really let us go," Hibiki stated. "I would have thought he wouldn't have considering how far away it is."

"Well whatever now we can have some swimming time." Selvaria said happily. "I just wish the academy had a indoor swimming pool of it's own."

"That seems like the only thing it doesn't have," Justin stated as they rounded the corner and walked down the stairs. "Well whatever lets get our bathing suits and have some fun."

Suddenly the two girls stopped as Justin looked at them. "Huh what's wrong with the two of you?"

Sheepishly Hibiki answered. "Uh... neither of us have a swimsuits!"

Justin sighed. "Well do both of you have any money?"

"Yes?" both girls replied.

"Then you can buy some at the hotel, they sell them by the pool area."

A hour later the three had taken a taxi to the resort hotel and the girls had bought a pair of one piece swimsuits, Selvaria got a red one and Hibiki picked out a blue one with green polka dots.

*Splash*

The three children jumped into the pool seemingly having it all to themselves as no one else was around at the time.

* * *

Meanwhile elsewhere on Reach a man named Nash Atkins sat in a roadside bar in the middle of nowhere drinking a bottle of Russian Vodka to drown out his woes.

He had sideburns, dark sunglasses, black leather jeans and a white shirt . All he wanted was to make a little extra money on the side nothing wrong with that is there. Sure nabbing psiker kids off the street COULD... be considered kidnapping but he made sure the kids were given GOOD new homes with new guardians that paid quite well for the new additions to the family, especially that Charles Geist guy from that colony orbiting around Earth. The guy was supposed to be a long term partner but instead that BITCH, Miss shadow caught him and busted his whole operation including letting slip Nash's involvement which had forced the man into hiding which wasn't easy especially with psikers on your tail. Nash Atkins wasn't even his real name just another thing that changed with his identity when he ran from the Psi-Academy and their agents.

As Nash took another swig of his Vodka as the tv hanging on the wall changed to a program of two scientists getting a nobel peace prize.

[Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa please step forward,] a well dressed man said on screen said as the two men took a few steps forward. [It is my pleasure to award the two of you the Nobel peace prize for your groundbreaking work in developing the first faster than light light technology.]

A wave of flashes and light danced across the screen as hundreds of photos were taken of the two men receiving their awards and smiling at the cameras.

[What will the two of you do now?] [Please tell us how it feels to bring Terran kind to the stars?] [When will the new technology be mass produced?] the press asked off screen.

[It's a great relief to know that all the hard work of the past few years had come to fruition and bore fruit] Wallace Fujikawa answered [ And I would like the answer the questions by saying the two of us and our team will be working on the mass production of the new slipspace drive with the NeoCortex company and their team of elite researchers on New Horizon station headed by Aliasse Irving.]

Nash in a drunken stupor and only slightly interested turned to the screen to see the face of the woman he held responsible for costing him everything.

"#$%^ing Bitch I know you," Nash spat with venom in a drunken slurred voice as he recognised the face of Miss shadow.

During his run from the psi-academy agents Nash looked into the one responsible for costing him his livelihood and it wasn't all that hard considering his technopathy ability which was also the only reason he was not rotting in a jail cell already. When you can rewrite computer code and control machines that are the cornerstone of modern society it's easy to run from the law especially since the ability is rare and he was the only person with such a power and if their were others they hadn't been found yet. Even AIs, at least the dumb kind were easy to fool and miss direct but it got tiresome which is why Nash went to a black market surgeon and changed everything about himself including his face and body, hell he wasn't even a natural white caucasian before but that's what he looks like now. Modern medical nanotech is capable of great things if you know who to go to.

After he learned who was responsible for ruining his life Nash tried to find this Miss Shadow and tracked her trail all over even ending up at a privately owned ship called the Swan that served as a resupply and custom services shop. After questioning the married couple running the place and turning up empty Nash went back on the run and traveled back to Reach. Sometimes the best place to hide is right under the laws nose which had been working so far but now after finding Miss shadow Nash thought it was time for a little revenge. He would need money first but that wasn't a problem as most times he was off Reach looking for any psikers he hacked random ATMs and conducted his on the side work to fatten his wallet. Hiding the money in multiple locations just in case and in the form of case as it would leave a digital trail if he put the money into a bank account. Now all he needed was some muscle to help him ruin miss Aliasse,s day and get even.

A day later Nash arrived at a space colony in the Epsilon Eridani' systems inner rocky asteroid belt where he stashed some of the money he's collected over the years. At the colony space docks Nash stepped off the transport ship and made his way through the spaceport, taking a auto taxi through the colony to a hotel. Stepping up to the front counter he requested a certain room and the clerk handed him the keys. Nash walked to the room and opened the door closing it behind him and setting his bags on the bed.

"Now where did I put those credits..."Nash mumbled as he looked around the room. "Oh yeah now I remember."

Nash went to the back of the room and grabbed a chair dragging it closer to a vent in the ceiling and using his knife to unscrew it from the ceiling. Inside the ventilation shaft he found a large duffle bag full of something. Toshing it on the bed Nash unzipped it and found to his delight hundreds of thousands of credits along with some gold plates and a Smith and Wesson revolver.

"This should be enough to get started," Nash said as his mouth bent into a wicked smile promising pain and suffering to the one that ruined his life. Never even caring that Aliasse was now working for a major corporation and in a secure station but that matters not to the single minded man bent on revenge. After all it only took time, patience and a good plan to bring even the strongest prey down. Holstering the revolver Nash zipped up the bag and after locking up he made his way to the next destination, a robotics shop in the back of the colony. Down a dark hallway Illuminated only by a single flickering light he arrived at a large metal door and knocked on the large metal door.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Hay old man you still alive?"

There was a few minutes of silence as he waited and after a minute a slid on the door opened revealing two elderly eyes. "Who are ya. What do you want?" grumbled a old man.

"Hey is that any way to greet a customer old man Marven."

The eyes in the doorway blinked as Marven wondered how this guy knew his name and called him by the nickname old man Marven. "Cage is that you?"

"Yeah had to change my identity after things went belly up for me at the Psi-academy."

"Oh... Ah... well come in."

There was a loud clanking of metal as the door slid open revealing a balding old man in his sixties with gray hair on the back and sides of his head wearing blackened greasy work overalls and goggles hanging around his neck but despite the man's age he had a muscular build denoting many years of hard work.

"By the way I go by Nash now," He said as the two men walked into the room that smelled of machine parts and oil and looked like a machine shop for robots, there was even a old mk 2 exo suit sitting along the wall that still had arm sheaths for the drivers arms that controlled the larger robotic arms making the exo-suit look like it had four arms. A design feature that only the older first and second gen exo suits had as later versions used a neural interface that allowed the exosuit drivers to control it with just their minds and not only increasing the performance of the exo-suit but also making the arm sheaths redundant as the driver could just cross their real arms in the suit.

"So what do you want Cage er... Nash is it," the old man said correcting himself as he walked to a refrigerator and pulled out two cans of beer handing one to Nash as he calls himself now a days.

Nash took the beer and opened it taking a swig. "Ah!. Well I was wondering if you still got that old prototype and if I could use your shop a bit. *drinking beer* I'll pay yea."

The old man sighed and looked around his shop. "Well i'm just about ready to retire anyway so why don't you just take the whole shop."

Nash about choked on his beer when he heard that. "*Cough* Ah what... YOU retire. Didn't you always say you would die working here?"

"Eeh that was a life time ago back when my brother was still..."

On the refrigerator was a picture of young teenage twin boys holding a young robotics award trophy along with many other pictures showing the twins growing older over the years.

"Hmm well if that's the case i'll take the whole shop."Nash said as he unslung the duffle bag from his shoulder and unzipped it making Marvens eyes light up in astonishment at the amount of money inside."

Marven shot a look at Nash and then looked back to the duffle bag and again back to Nash. "Well that should do it for my retirement and then some."

"Good then I'll just be getting to work then if you don't mind."

A moment later the sound of machines humming to life and working filtered through from under the floor.

Marven just looked Nash in the eyes and shrugged as he took half the credits and a few of the gold bars stuffing them into a suitcase. "Well have fun, i'm going to get some body remodeling work done and buy one of those resort islands on Earth. See yeah," Marven said as he waved goodby and left Nash to his work whatever that was it really wasn't the old man's worry.

After the old man had left Nash walked to a staircase in the corner of the room and walked down to the lower level to a large room where a series of robotic arms were building a large robot that looked like larger version of the exosuit in the garage above but more advanced looking. Nash took another swig of his beer as he sat down on a chair and watched his revenge take form. Nash knew that it would take a lot of work and fire power to infiltrate the New Horizon station where Aliasse was working but if possible he wanted to catch her in the open somewhere on a planet maybe.

By the end of the month on September 30th the oversized exosuit was completed and armed with two ARC-290 from the black market in it's smaller set of arms and a modified M50 light anti aircraft gatling gun as the main rifle underslung on the left arm. The new exosuit was painted black with red stripes and a white stripe on the triangular shaped head on top the hollow torso.

With music playing on a radio Nash looked his creation over and smiled as he thought of selling the thing after he's done with it or maybe not. Nash then mad the final touches and the folding armored plated of the front torso closed up and locked in place. Then with a mental command the exosuit stood up from it's kneeling position. and Nash smiled at his handy work. One of the best things about his technopathy is he doesn't need to install any wireless radio systems in the suit to control it.

As Nash looked over his creation the Radio he had on changed to a news report.

[In recent news we have a new and very interesting report to make regarding the first FTL capable ship known as the Enterprise. It and it's crew will be making their maiden voyage from the Sol system to the Epsilon Eridani system in three days Earth time. And after the ship arrives on Reach their will be a planet wide celebration of the technological achievement that will usher in an new age of exploration through the stars.] Another reporter continued the report. [Thats right Steve and there will be many people of note at the celebration on Reach including the men responsible for the creation of the technology. DR's Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa along with many others will be in attendance of the event including the new partner of the two now renowned scientists Aliasse,] Nash turned around and focused on the radio [ Irving of NeoCortex and in a almost unheard of event the head of the NeoCortex company Ellen Reid whos well known for her unsociable history will also attend the event and if that's not all The staff and students from the well known Psi-academy will also be in attendance.]

Nash suddenly got a idea as to the where and when he will get his payback on Miss shadow but the only question is how to deal with the psikers from the academy who will know doubt sense him and alert the events security if not take matters in their own hands.

Nash thought for a few minutes before remembering a secret project that the academy was conducting regarding a device called a Psi-screen that can prevent telepaths from reading the wearers' minds and also cancels out a telepaths mind-reading abilities. The project was started under the request of the UTG and UNSC to be a counter to any rogue Psikers reading the minds of highly ranked government and military personnel.

Nash wasn't the strongest telepath but telepathy was pretty much a common ability that all psikers had to varying degrees. If Nash could get his hands own one of those psi-screens he could walk around without alerting any of the academy personnel as to his presence. Plus he could sell the thing after words and get a small fortune if he can find the right buyer which shouldn't be that hard on the black market as any tech or information about the psi-academy and any tech from them is pretty much gold on the open market which was one of the reasons he caught and sold psiker kids to criminals.

"Hmm I could brake into the academy after they leave for that celebration and use my remote toy here to retrieve the device but the problem is I don't know where the thing is. Know doubt it's in some underground bunker. There were places I wasn't allowed to go," Nash mused to himself as he went over his strategy and came up with a solution to his problem.

* * *

 **Luna,** Earth orbit

 **Von Braun city,** United Terran Government head quarters

The moon and it's underground cities have been a major traveling hub for anyone going to and from the outer solar system ever since it was first colonised. And currently the satellite of Earth has the honor of being the the current location of the UTG president. Ever since the change of humanities name to Terrans the location of the government has been a ever changing thing as it was decided to move the location of the central government whenever a new president took office. This also helped relieve criticism from certain groups as now the location of the presidency can be any major city in either Sol or Epsilon Eridani allowing for a shared government body and ensuring a unified Terran society. Although it's the newly elected president who has to choose the new location which still has political advantages and disadvantages so the choice has to be far.

 **Secret meeting room.**

The room darkened as the wall screen changed to show images of Proxima Centauri b and the unprecedented Zerg presence there. Images of Hives and Lairs and the kilometer wide armored domes showed on screen along with millions of Zerg.

"Damn i've never seen so many Zerg before!"

"There are more Zerg on the planet then during the first war."

"This is a most daunting trial but we can't let their numbers keep us bottled up in just two solar systems," said the Observer Andrew Johnson.

Observers in modern society serve as a balancing element, outside watchers like the name suggests on many issues that would normally result in minor to major problems ranging from corruption in the government and companies to changing of unjust or just plain bad laws that would make people less loyal to the government among many other things and have, ever since their first inception in the years following the first Zerg war. Observers have served their job well in keeping the peace and making sure society and technology doesn't stangnate like they did in the early twenty first century. Even though Observers aren't members of the government, military, corporations or any other organization they still carry the same authority as the UTG president, only to a lesser capacity meaning every major organization has to seriously listen to what a Observer has to say. Although this also means Observers are expected to be serious about their jobs and conduct it with distinction and honor just like any other member of government so Observers have everyone's eyes on them expecting them to always have a good idea concerning how to improve something that's lacking be it large or small issues.

Although back in the 21st century when Observers were first proposed by the Swarm Empress after the end of the war many people were hesitant to even consider such a thing let alone accept it from the one responsible for the most devastating war since World Wars 1 and 2. But after some convincing of the United Nations and other major governments at the time the Observer system was tried out for the first time. It was a rocky start but the system started to pick up steam and support from the civilian population at large who saw the Observers as a way for them to have a voice and say in major issues as Observers are not beholden to any government or company nor are they expected to, but only adhering to a set of codes of conduct and rules made specifically for them, all the while such groups are expected to listen to the opinion of the Observers. And now a days the opinion of a Observer is greatly valued. Which is why a Observer was allowed into such a highly secure meeting.

"Mister Johnson do you really think the UNSC can clear such a large number of Zerg without incurring savere casualties?" asked the current UTG president.

Mister Johnson turned to the lady president. "Yes miss president. But only if they have the right tools. I have become aware of a certain project being conducted by the Valkyrur Aliasse who months before took over as lead of operations in a NeoCortex research lab on the New Horizon station."

"I've become aware of the research being conducted there." the lady president stated.

Another member of the meeting decided to speak up. "So have I. And both projects seem... far fetched. Super soldiers and robotic copies of Zerg really?"

"They are somewhat unorthodox. But they also show great promise and each has their own uses," said a general from the UNSC.

Andrewson *coughed* turning everyone's attention back to the matter at hand. "I know that those projects may seem odd but a simple orbital bombardment will not solve the Zerg problem. I purpose the UTG should lend a greater amount of support for both projects as well as the new class of warship Aliasse has designed to support the Spartan super soldiers."

Everyone at the meeting discussed the issue weighing the pros and cones until a consensus was reached and the funding expansion for all three projects was decided.

Afterword Johnson left the UTG building and caught a flight to the new Horizon station to personally meet with Aliasse arriving on October 3rd.

Johnson arrived at the docks of new Horizon station and took one of the Elevators to the core of the station and after a short time met with Aliasse who was currently over seeing a test with a puppeteered clone that was wearing a suit of armor.

"Ah mister Johnson I heard that your were here on my station," Aliasse said as she and mister Johnson shook hands.

"It's quit a pleasure to finally meet with you miss Aliasse the famous Valkyrur."

Aliasse blushed a little at the complement. "Hehe. I'm not that famous now a days. Its been so long I doubt many people other than a few in the UTG and Observers like you even remember that little fact."

Johnson shrugged. "Yes well im what you could call a student of history. Does that mean you've hung up your Lance and Shield. I remember watching classified recordings of your battle with the swarm empress during the attack on the main hive cluster in China?. But the satellite view really doesn't do the fight justice."

"Heheheh sorry to say but i'ed rather lead from the rear these days instead of fight on the front lines. Shall we," Aliasse said gesturing down the hall.

The two continued to talk as they made their way to Lab 1 where the new Mjolnir armor tests were being conducted. The two arrived in the testing room where ten puppeteered clones in full prototype Mjolnir armor were testing the armor. Along one wall three clones were running on giant reinforced walk tracks running at a brisk 10 kilometers a hour. In the middle of the room another three clones were bench pressing giant multi tone weights. And in the back of the room there was a firing range behind reinforced glass with the remaining clones inside shooting guns of different types at robotic Zerg targets.

There was a loud Voosh and explosion as the anti-tank rocket impacted a simulant Hydralisk down range blasting it into a few hundred pieces.

Along the glass four scientists took notes of the damage as a robotic Zerg Drone went into the shooting range and collected the remains putting them in a wheeled platform taking the remains out of the room.

Johnson cringed at the brutal test. "Well that's another way to use the simulant Zerg I guess."

"Weapons testing with the new Mjolnir armor," Aliasse explained as they continued on their way.

Soon after they arrived in Aliasse's office which had the walls and ceiling screens showing a vast savanna of grasslands and sky from Africa and little else in the room other then the Obsidian black desk.

Johnson took a seat at in front of the desk and relaxed. "Ah now that we can have a talk I wanted to talk to you Miss Aliasse about the new ship class you purposed. The Infinity class supercarrier."

Aliasse walked behind her desk and pushed a button that summoned a coffee maker from the wall. "I understand it will take a few years to complete once construction begins but it shouldn't be too much for the contractors to handle since it use's current technology," Aliasse said as she filled two cups of warm coffee giving one to Johnson before taking her seat behind her desk.

Johnson took a small sip of the coffee as he continued. "Yes well that isn't the issue but rather the purpose for such a ship. The military fully comprehends the functions of such a vessel but their are some among the UTG that don't really see the need for such a ship in the current fleet."

Aliasse gave a knowing hum. "Hmm well in simple terms the Infinity class supercarrier is a mobile command, resupply base and support craft for the Spartans ground invasion operations."

Johnson took another sip of his coffee. "I see so it's not a true space combat craft."

"No" Aliasse siped her coffee. "It is a space combat craft as well but it is more of a heavy tank that is meant to take and diss out heavy damage just like that multi kilometer long Zerg bioship that attacked Reach early this century."

Johnson nodded in understanding. "Ah so it is meant to counter the new zerg breed and match it in capability."

"Exactly. The Infinity class is ment to both hold its own in space compat and transport and support heavy planetary invasion operations. Although it's not very fast or maneuverable given its mass and size."

Johnson gave a small smirk upon learning this. "It will serve us well in the invasion of Proxima Centauri b."

Aliasse raised a eyebrow at that. "Thats a planet in the Alpha centauri system if i'm not mistaken. Why are you bringing it up?"

"Well you'll find out sooner or later so I may as well tell you. The prototype FTL ship the Enterprise took a trip to Alpha Centauri at as final test of its capabilities before it went public."

Aliasse sighed. "Figures the UTG would do something like that. Well?"

"Eh hem, right. Well when the ship arrived in orbit of Proxima Centauri b, shortly after they found a massive Zerg hive cluster covering a continent. They were able to collect a considerable amount of date before the Zerg attacked them, but they were able to escape with no damage to the ship or crew."

Aliasse gave a sighed mumbling. "No doubt she let them scan the planet and leave."

Johnson tilted his head in mild confusion. "Im sorry but whats does that mean?"

"It means it's a trial for Terran kind to take the planet and finally meet the Zerg in a open battlefield on even terms. Know doubt Ell- ah hem. The swarm empress is gong the use the full force of her swarm to hold the planet. There may not be any outside reinforcements but know doubt the resistance to any invasion will be met with the full power of the local hive cluster."

Johnson sipped his coffee as he thought a moment. "Hmph I see. A final trial to prove that we Terrans can meet the Zerg on the battlefield as equals before we take to the stars."

* * *

 **Reach**

 **November 5th,** Wednesday

 **Psi-Academy** Parking lot

Early in the day as the morning dew was fresh on the grass and the sun was only just starting rise its shining form from over the mountains, students and teachers filled into the buses to take them to the Reach capital of Esztergom for the celebration of the arrival of the Enterprise and her crew. A tiny robotic insect flew over the buses and heads of the students and staff. The synthetic wings buzzing rapidly as it and all its other copies entered the school grounds and started searching for the secret lab.

A hour after the buses had left the robotic bugs started using their micro-cutting lasers to make openings in the windows. Nash had lived in the academy for nine years so he knew much about it's security systems and how to bypass them. The tiny swarm of robots punched out the perfectly cut out circle's of glass and swarmed into the Library. As the tiny flybots infiltrated the campus grounds and buildings Nash sat in a a Gas stations dining area fifty kilometers away pretending to read a piece of news paper.

"Come on come on show me the gold my little bots," Nash mumbled as he directed his bots to the entrance to the underground lab that his fly bots had found a week ago when one of them saw a teacher in the library open a secret door with their biometric security card. The fly bots all converged on the now not so hidden door behind a bookcase along a inner wall and started crawling into the cracks and started cutting at the neosteel door but their tiny lasers all though able to cut glass were unsuited for the thicker and stronger metal door.

"Well that figures," Nash huffed in annoyance as he took a drink of soda and sent in his big dog to do things the hard way.

In the skies over the Psi-academy a civilian cargo craft flew over head before landing in between the main buildings. Its rear doors dropped down as a few teachers and staff that remained at the school watched from the windows wondering what's going on. As the teachers and staff watched a giant four armed and heavily armed exosuit walked out from the transports rear ramp. With heavy footsteps it sauntered over to the library and crashed through the wall before proceeding to go to the hidden door. Upon seeing the exosuit the staff hit a alarm bell and got in contact with the principle who was on the buses now a good few hours away in the capital.

As the alarm rang out the oversized exosuit reached the bookcase hiding the doorway. Reaching out with its larger metallic arms it tore the book case off its hinges and tossed it away, hitting another book case and starting a short lived domino effect. The exo-suite under Nash's control then aimed it's dual ARC-920 rifles at the door hinges and fired blowing them to pieces with its hyper velocity projectiles at point blank. The Neosteel door was then ripped off its ruined hinges and tossed aside, however the doorway was too small for the exosuit so the flybots proceeded to enter the staircase leading down. At the bottom of the stairs was another door but this one was just a normal one and was easily destroyed by a dozen of the flybots landing on it and detonating their battery cells creating a cacophonous explosion that left the door a ruin. The remaining flybots entered the lab where many cabinets, and hightech equipment was sitting along the walls with more doors, Nash split his flybots up searching the other rooms for the Psi-screen. It took a few minutes of looking and five more exploded doors later the Psi-screen was found, five of them to be exact all of which were about the size of a earphone.

The flybots cut the cabinet doors off and landed on the psi-screens with their small legs and adhering to them with their sticky molecular gripping feet and extended tiny nano cables to lift the devices, flying them back to the waiting exosuit. After another minute the flybots reached the exosuit as a ONI stealth Pelican landed beside the rouge transport offloading six black armored troops with two military grade Cyclops exosuits all of which was seen by Nash through his transports sensors.

"Well crap ONI sure has a impeccable response time," Nash cursed as he took another drink of his soda and activated his trump card.

Twenty miles away from the psi-academy in the mountains a large four legged robot as big as a Scorpion main battle tank lifted itself up and rotated it's upper body to the side aiming it's twin heavy ARC-1000 rail cannons and fired.

Back at the psi-academy two of the ONI rapid response force infantry fired rockets at the rouge transport aircraft destroying it while the other troops and Cyclops opened fire on the rouge exosuit pelting its heavier armor with dents and scratches but doing little else. A few moments later two hyper sonic artillery shells impacted the ONI transport detonating it in a shower of fire and shrapnel. The blast killed two of the ONI troops and stunning the rest for few seconds.

"Hehe lets have some fun," Nash said as he leaned back with a smile on his face.

Nashs exosuit returned fire with it's twin ARC-920 rifles, blasting the four remaining ONI troops to bloody mist as the hyper velocity rounds hit the troops center mass. Nash then aimed his exosuits M50 gatling gun at the two Cyclops and fired. *Burrrrrr* The ripping noise associated with gatling guns announced a barrage of death as the rapidfire armor piercing explosive rounds ripped into the two ONI Cyclops. The continues barrage slowly tearing them apart, reducing them to lumps of twisted slagged metal and bloody cavities.

Nash's custom exosuit now without it's transport simple ran off into the nearby forest to meet up with it's bigger brother. While the battle was being fought the flybots retreated bringing their prizes to their master. They flew for miles through forests and over streams as they neared a open field miles away from the psi-academy. The fly bots started to weaken as their battery cells started to give out and one by one they fell, their energy spent. A few minutes later Nash walked up to the life less flybots and picked up the five psi-screens know doubt completed given the number and quality of their design.

"Bet I could sell these thing for a small fortune on the black market," Nash happly mused as he pocketed four of the psi-screens and held the fifth up using his technopathy ability to read the programming in the device to understand it better. "Ha this is going to be fun. Can't wait to see the look on the bitch's face."

* * *

Meanwhile at the Esztergom grand stadium the buses from the psi-academy arrived. The students all exited the buses and filled into the stadium along with thousands of other people who have come for the event. Minutes later both Selvaria and Hibiki along with their classmates ascended the stairs up to the upper stands reserved for them when a group of well dressed people passed by two older man Selvaria recognised as Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa. Selvaria and Hibiki both stood there surprised by the random encounter as the two now famous scientists walked up to their private stands.

"Is... that Shaw and Fujikawa!" Hibiki said in astonishment.

"Uh yeah thats them. Heh small world-" Selvaria said but was caught off when someone bumped into her from behind triggering a violent vision. Flashes of smoke and screaming people running in different directions as explosions went off and a four legged mech shot into the crowd in the stadium. The vision changed flashing to a man with sideburns attacking a woman with long silver hair and a odd decorative bracelet on her wrist.

The vision ended as the person slipped past Selvaria and apologised. The stunned young teen blinked shaking her head. "Hey you all right Selvi," Hibiki asked in concern as she noticed her friend spacing out for a moment.

Selvaria looked at the back of the person who had just bumped into her and called out and her odd bracelet. "Hey miss."

The silver haired woman stopped and turned back to Selvaria with a look of mild interest. "Yes. Your students from the Psi-academy aren't you," the woman said recognising the girls academy uniforms.

Selvaria felt a lump well up into her chest as she recognised the person as Aliasse, a Valkyrur just like her mother and someone she was meant to contact but it was still far too early at this point. But something bad was going to go down soon at the stadium and to Aliasse. Selvaria couldn't allow that especially if it was her fault for changing the timeline. "Aliasse."

Aliasse narrowed her eyes taking more interest of the young girl who knew her name. "Yes, what is it."

"We need to talk. I... I know about the Zerg hive cluster at Proxima centauri b and Spartan program and simulant Zerg."

Aliasse stood there staring at Selvaria with a mild look of shock on her face. "We need to talk," she said to the young girl.

Meanwhile at another part of the stadium a group UNSC Marines took their seats.

"Aw man I can't believe they finally reached... well... Reach," Jonathan Aitken said as he sat down.

"Yeah, *slurrrrp* can't wait till there are regular flights to other star systems, I want to see a binary star system," Said Manfred Alduino as he continued slurping his soda drink.

"Ugh act your age Manfred," sighed Zula Thomas beside the man slurping his drink.

"*Sigh* Why am I stuck with these guys?.

"Because you got demoted for that little explosion that nearly killed general Bartley," Reginald Schwenke chimed in.

"Hay I was just trying to make the training exorcise more... entertaining," Zula retorted trying to defend herself."

"Hehe, i'm glad I transfered to this unit you people are a lot more interesting than my old unit." Harriette Ness quipped as she took a bit out of her burger.

The football game started on schedule as the game between the Esztergom Cheetahs and the New Alexandria Sabers went on for 3 hours and 12 minutes. A typical game that still had the ups and downs of such a event as each team gained and lost the advantage several times each team scoring but by the end it was the Sabers who took the victory. After words a preassembled stage rolled into on the field from a large ground level entrance and shortly after the crew of the Enterprise along with Tobias Fleming Shaw, Wallace Fujikawa and the current president of Reach took the stage as everyone's attention was turned to the stage.

President Amerose took the podium. "My fellow Terrans" he turned guestering to the crew of the enterprise."And brothers and sisters from Earth. We stand here today to celebrate the beginning of a new era for all of Terran kind as-"

Outside the stadium Nash walked through the parking lot on his way inside. The man couldn't hear the thoughts of anyone else as the device attached to his ear created a interference pattern that blocked the psionic sensory abilities of other psikers along with Nash's own, but that was a minor inconvenience but as he reached the entrance to the stadium Aliasse appeared behind him.

Nash turned around to face his his target wondering why she's out here and where she had come from.

"I've been waiting for you," Aliasse said in a inquisitive tone.

"Hello Miss shadow," Nash replied venom filing his words. "Why in the world are you out here?"

"Oh a little bird told me there could be trouble so I camped out here waiting for you. So who are you and why do you have a grudge against me?"

"Tch damn precog," Nash cursed giving Aliasse a look of utter disdain and pulling out his smith and wesson revolver. "You ruined my career and cost me a lot of money."

Aliasse sighed, looking down a moment. "Cliche motivations. Maybe if you weren't morally bankrupt this wouldn't have happened to you. I mean child kidnaping really?. What possessed you to do such a thing?"

Nash grew a smile on his face. "Hehe that's irrelevant now. Just die bitch!"

*Bang*

Nash expected her to die. He expected her to fall as the bullet penetrated her chest and pierced her heart. But instead a blue barrier blocked the bullet and piece of Nash's ear and his psi-screen fell to the ground. Nash had a look of utter shock on his face as he held his bleeding ear looking back to Aliasse who had a filament of hair thin blue aura extending from her hair.

"AAAAAH WHAT THE $%# WHAT THE *# &. YOU BITCH. How did you... do that?"

Aliasse sighed as she listened to the stream of expletives coming from the criminal who was apparently the accomplice of that drug smuggler she had arrested months before on the Arden space colony. Nash tried to shoot Aliasse several more times until his revolver was empty. Each round blocked by her aura barrier. A moment later the shock of having his ear cut in half left him and Nash sensed the overwhelming power washing off of Aliasse.

"What the hell are you... uh oh crap."

"I see you've finally caught on. So tell me what I am."

Nash was paling at the pressure he felt coming from Aliasse and he finally understood that he had no chance against her. "You... your that Valkyrur from the first Zerg war."

"Correct. And your the fool who's going to jail for a very long time." Aliasse said as the Cops and a ambulance arrived and arrested Nash the medics putting him under sedation to keep him from using his powers until he can be placed in a proper confinement cell.

After the incident with Nash the cops would find the custom exosuit and mech he had constructed illegally and luckily he was arrogant enough to think he didn't need them when he confronted Aliasse seeing as he didn't know her true identity until after it was to late.

Aliasse returned to her seat in the upper stands where Selvaria and Hibiki were waiting along with her employer Ellen Reid who had been watching the two girls.

"The guys under arrest so its over. You can breath easier Selvaria," Aliasse said as she sat down beside the two girls still listened to the speech. "So your a Valkyrur like me huh?."

"Yes..." Selvaria confessed as her best friend turned to her. "I'll tell you everything later but not right now."

"I do hope so miss Selvaria. I wonder why you don't have the characteristics of a Darcsen or Valkyrur?" asked Ellen Reid as the speech continued.

Such questions would have to wait for latter.

 **Chapter end**

 **Floating high above the undead burg Psyon listened as the screams and cursing of Noobzilla rang out below on the wall section.**

 **"#$% ing Taurus demon," Noobzilla exclaimed as he dodged rolled away from a sweeping strike by said beast only to be nearly roasted alive by a fireball shot at him from the red drake resting on a nearby building. As the Taurus demon continued to hound Noobzilla the drake occasionally shot more fireballs at him one out of three hitting the Taurus demon thanks to Noobzillas quick thinking and fast feet.**

 **"Well he's entertaining" Psyon noted as Noobzilla got a hit in on the much larger demon while his weapon was infused with lightning from the golden pine resin. After another four strikes to the beasts legs it went down and capitalising on the moment Noobzilla started shooting arrows at range at the beasts head hitting one of its eyes. The enraged the beast got it's second wind and charged at the infuriating human only to be hit by a fireball from the drake. Again.**

 **The Taurus demon roared as it's fur was burned away even more and Its little opponent again ran between its legs and struck a ankle yet again bringing the larger Taurus demon down and finished it off with a slash to its throat causing a fountain of blood to gush out.**

 **With the beast dead Noobzilla ran in to the wall again resting from the pain in the ass battle but he had managed to get through it without dying although he was completely out of Estus and covered in blood.**

 **"*Gasp*... *gasp*... *gasp* I hope there aren't anymore battles like that one. *Gasp*... at least for a long while."**


	16. Chapter 16

**Dimension,** Dark souls custom underverse, Undead burg

 **Solaire of Astora stood at the great balcony overlooking the city below. The mist and fog nearly covering it completely. As the sun obsessed knight watched the blazing orb in the sky Noobzilla approached from behind sighing. "*sigh* Yo high there."**

 **"Oh! um hello. You don't look hollow. I am Solaire of Astora, an adherent to the Lord of Sunlight.**

 **"What you doing," Like Noobzilla didn't know already but he needs to keep up appearances.**

 **"Well now that I am Undead, I have come to this great land, the birthplace of Lord Gwyn, to seek my very own sun! Do you find that strange? Well you should."**

 **"No. Not really. Everyone has their own dream to fulfill or obtain."**

 **Solaire was taken aback by this little revelation of wisdom."Oh really. You seem quit wise to say such a thing."**

 **"Thanks... and as for your little sun quest I may be able to help with that."**

 **Solaire crossed his arms. "Really. Hahaha thank you. Than the way I see it, our fates appear to be intertwined. In a land brimming with Hollows, could that really be mere chance? What do you say? Why not help one another on this lonely journey?"**

 **Like Noobzilla even needed to think it over. "Ok yeah. Jolly cooperation then"**

 **"Hahaha. A word of advice. We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land. The flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out. The very fabric wavers, and relations shift and obscure. There's no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact. But, use this, to summon one another as spirits, cross the gaps between the worlds, and engage in as you say, jolly! co-operation!"**

 **Solair handed over a White Sign Soapstone.**

 **Noobzilla took the stone and placed it in his inventory. "Thanks. Hope we can meet again. And I'll work on that sun?! thing for you."**

 **"I would so appreciate it. If only I could be so grossly incandescent as the sun!... um I didn't get your name my good sir?"**

 **"Noob of zilla. From across the sea far to the east."**

 **"Ah, then Noob of zilla I await your summon one day. Good luck to the both of us in our endeavors."**

 **Noobzilla left the sunlit knight and continued on his way across the bridge running like a mad man while dodge rolling away from the Drakes fireballs, and reaching the right alcove and stairs that lead to the ladder short cut to the undead burg bonfire. After recoping Noobzilla cleared the far undead burg area again and attacked the black knight in a lower area.**

 **"Woe shit," Noobzilla yelled as he nearly got split in half by the seven foot tall knight and his giant sword.**

 **Attacking the black knight hacked and slashed at the little fool who disturbs his rest. But the little one was swift and clever so the knight took a defensive stance ready to counter attack should the fool attack.**

 **Taking the opportunity Noobzilla switched to his short bow and shoot the black knight in the foot were his armor was weakest.**

 **"Grrr, Ahhh!" the black knight roared as he charged bringing his sword down on the infuriating fool only for Noobzilla to twist out of the way just as the blade fell and stabbed the black knight in the back. "Ahhhh!" the black knight swung horizontally 360 degrees but again Noobzilla dodged rolled away just nearly avoiding the blade. The black knight went on the offensive slashing and swinging his great sword whom the knight had used many times to lay waste to the enemies of his lord Gwyn. But this little one is quit evasive so the black knight switched to one handing his sword and focusing on keeping the little one on his toes as he dodged out of the way time after time but the black knight was now always keen on keeping his opponent in front and not letting him get behind him again.**

 **"Damn your different from the hollows aren't ya," Noobzilla quipped as he again rolled away from a low swing.**

 **Thinking his options through Noobzilla decided to use his fire bombs. Quick selecting them he two handed double fire bombs and throw them at the black knights feet where his shield won't protect him. The black knight screamed and roared as the fire and flames stuck to his armor and burned but it caused a change in him a change that blazed in his soul and the black knight started burning with a inner fire as his armor glowed and caught fire his blade glowing orange. "Araaahhh!"**

 **Noobzilla stood there arms hanging down eyes blank as the black knight turned into a burning black knight with fiery eyes. "Oh! *uck me not again!."**

 **The burning black knight cast off his shield swinging his glowing sword at the fool his blade producing a blaze of flame with every swing that seared the skin of his enemies.**

 **"Shit! shit! shit!."**

 **Desperately Noobzilla dodged the** **high-speed** **attacks that were not only faster but now created a wave of burning hot flame with every swing. The burning black knight took a stance and pointed his burning blade at his enemy and thrust shooting a beam of flame at him. The flame beam hit Noobzillas shield sending him flying backwards and into the crenellations of the overlook.**

 **"Owww!... I'll feel that in the morning," Noobzilla said as he took a swig of his estus.**

 **A moment later the burning black knight charged, blade lowered to impale. His blade pierced into the stone crenellations melting the stone from the heat. There was a moment of silence as the two opponents looked each other in the eyes one dead the other alive.**

 **"*uck... you."**

 **Noobzilla declared as he pulled both his blades out of the abdomen of the burning black knight and quickly stabbed down into the gap between his helmet and body armor severing nerve and muscle and stabbing with his broad sword over and over again until the burning black knight was no more. The burning black knight slumped down now lifeless as his body turning to ash in his still blazing armor, Noobzilla looked down to his wound. The burning blade of the black knight still impaled in the stone wall was cutting four inch's into his waist and burned like a *other *ucker.**

 **"OW! OW! OW!" Noobzilla cried as he pulled himself away of the blades fiery edge and took two swig's of estus. "*SIGH* THAT almost killed me... damn. Ha! sweet sword."**

 **With a pained groan** **Noobzilla pulled the burning black knight sword from the stone crenellations and placed it in his deep inventory along with the burning black knight armor and shield after shaking the ash out of it. Checking the states they were even better then the original with the blades fire attack and the armor and shields fire defense double what the originals were if Noobzillas remembers correctly.**

 **"This will be great for taking on that Drake on the bridge. Buuut there all too heavy for me to use at the moment."**

 **Noobzilla sighed at that little fact as he resolved to grind at the darkroot garden until he could use; The burning Black Knight armor, shield and sword set.**

 **Returning to the local undead burg bonfire Noobzilla recovered his lost estus and continued on his way to the tower with the shortcut to the dark root basin. Getting past Havel the rock was a pain.**

 **Havel swings his dragons tooth great hammer smashing through the wood floor just as Noobzilla dodges away and opens the door with his master key running away like a sissy into darkroot basin.**

 **Getting past the second black knight on the zig zagging ramps of the cliff side was a pain times ten but Noobzilla managed to lead the black knight down of the cliffs and to a flat area to deal with him. Noobzilla took some hits using up two estus drinks but came out on top and after word hit the cave and the bone fire within before collecting the Grass Crest Shield.**

 **After that Noobzilla got past the Hydra, The Hydra shoots nine hydro bolts at Noobzilla as he runs for his life again like a little sissy and climbed up to the upper darkroot garden where he found the area to be far larger than in the game as the dark forest seemed to stretch on for a few miles at least.**

 **"Damn I hope the high souls dropping enemies in the area are still in the same places as the game otherwise i'm shit out of luck. I don't want to have to fight them more then one at a time."**

 **Taking in a deep breath Noobzilla proceeded to make his way through the forest sometimes fighting off the Demonic Foliage (also called Ents) that make the forest their home. They only pose a threat in large numbers but otherwise their just walking shrubs with a annoying grab attack. After a one hour walk Noobzilla arrived at the stone steps and large stone door that would normally be opened from the other side and could only be opened from the other side. However this was more real life then a game so climbing the near by hill was a easy bypass. Now on the other side of the stone doors Noobzilla's next task was simple reveal the illusory wall, rest at the cliff side bonfire and start grinding.**

 **{One-Month-Later}**

 **"And done," Noobzilla chirped as he leveled up with all the souls he had farmed and grinded for repetitively for a whole month nonstop every day which was a thing now as the world now had a day and night cycle instead of each area having its own time of day and it's not like the whole thing was boring or anything Noobzilla was very focused on leveling up and getting stronger so he could SlAUGHTER that Drake hahahaha!.**

 **All stats were at 50 now which made Noobzilla basically as powerful as a end game boss at this point but he had a sneaking suspicion that the changes to the dark souls world would be even more, eh hem, extreme later on so he wanted any advantage he could get. Especially against the four great lords who hold the four lord souls. Plus in the near future Noobzilla wanted to learn magic, all the magic.**

* * *

 **Chapter 16**

 **Rise of the Spartans Part 5**

 **Date,** 2294, MAY 16th Wednesday

 **Location,** Sol system

 **Planet,** Saturn's moon Titan, Underground Spartan training tunnels

Deep under the surface of Titan lay massive tunnels carved into the bedrock of the planet by the zerg and their Nydus worms during the war hundreds of years ago, but despite the time since then the tunnels carved into the planet's crust have remained mostly intact. And ever since Terrans had colonised the moon many cities and military bases have been built in the underground tunnels along with the city domes on the surface that provide a safe environment for the people of Titan to live in. However most of the population of the moon still live in the much safer underground cities as the occasionally meteor impacts the surface of the moon.

Currently the former Zerg tunnel networks is still only 52% mapped and some tunnels have collapsed. But in others the UNSC and Neo Cortex have built training facilities for the Spartan program.

*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA *DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*

The sound of heavy gun fire flashed and roared through the tunnels as the simulant zerg attacked a small base camp. Vacuum sealed and protected in their jet black production type Mjolnir gen 1 mark 1 armor the Spartans of team 1 shoot from their entrenched position. Gunning down dozens of the metal Zerg as they charge on ward.

*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA *DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*

The mechanical zerg charged onward to their prey even as the gun fire ripped them apart and they in turn shot back with their own spin and acid spewing weapons. Criss crossing gun fire blasted puffs of dirt up off the ground as both forces shot back at the other.

*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA *DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*

As the battle continued a Hydralisk and two Roaches flanked around the battle to attack the targets from the rear as the rest of the Simulant Zerg continued the attack.

*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA *DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*

The three machine Zerg slowly made their way past a stone column and around a large crate to reach the back of the half circle entrenchment the Spartans were defending from. Heavy machine gunfire and heavy ARC-920s blasted the attacking zerg forces from the raised earthen wall.

*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA *DAKKA*DAKKA*DAKKA*

As the Zerg approached from behind them the simulant Zerg stepped on a object brarried underground. *BOOM* The machine zerg trying to flank from behind were blown to pieces by three lotus mk2 anti tank mine's.

"So I asked what's that supposed to mean and the other guy said I don't know,*BANG* and I said what you don't know? *BANG* Yeah she never said she was a virgin,*BANG* And i said."

*Thwap* "Shut the hell up Jonathan and focus on the training mission," yelled Reginald Schwenke as he smacked the Spartan on the helemit before aiming his Arc-920 at a Roach rounding the cave entrance 250 meters away and fired. The hyper velocity armor piercing explosive round reached the metal Roach piercing through its tough tank grade armor and exploded messing up it's internal parts. Had it been a real flesh and blood Roach it would have burrowed and healed but being a machine it was simply scraped until it could be repaired.

The Spartan recruits continued to fight off the machine Zerg wave after wave defending their base for a whole hour until the attacks stopped and a field of scrap metal was laying before them.

"Damn that took forever," quipped Manfred Alduino as he reloaded his ARC-920 rifle which has become a common Spartan weapon.

"Let's gather as much ammo as we can and go on the offensive," Jonathan said as Harriette Ness and Zula Thomas appeared each hefting a rocket launcher and ammo box's in each hand.

"About damn time," Harriette stated. "Let's blow them to kingdom come."

"Now your talking my language girl," Zula replied as the two high fived.

"Ok team 1 let's get moving and take out that hive," Reginald ordered as team leader.

The five Spartans marched off through the tunnels to the enemies base camp on the other side of the local tunnel network that had been converted into a UNSC training ground and was now the Spartan proving ground were the first groups of Spartans were being tested for their performance and teamwork. Training missions like this one had been the norm for the past few years now.

Team 1 marched through the tunnels guns up at the ready for any ambuses or flanking attacks that might (had) been thrown at them (for the past few years of training). A moment later Twenty mecha Zerglings tried to rush them from a side tunnel but were quickly detected by team ones motion sensors and blasted to scrap by focused fire. But the Zerglings were quickly followed by Hydralisk attacking from a tunnel on the opposite side catching team 1 in a pincer attack.

Metal spines buried into Manfreds back armor as he and the others realised the new threat. "Ack shit, live ammo! not again." Manfred yelled as he took cover and Reginald checked his wounds.

"It's a pincer attack. Zula, Harriette deal with the Hydralisks," Reginald ordered.

"Yes sir," they both replied.

In just three second of the order they kneeled unslung their rocket launchers, switching the smart ammo to proximity fragmentation air bursting and fired emptying all four of their rocket tubs.

*BOOM*KABANG*

Twin explosions rocked the tunnels as the Hydralisk were blasted to fragmented scrap laying all over the place. Both Spartans got to cover and reloaded ignoring the half dozen Spines dug into their armor. The augmentations to their bodies and the Mjolnir armor minimizing the damage and keeping them standing. A moment after they reloaded a pair of Zerglings pounced on them from behind.

The two Spartan girls reached behind them and wrenched the annoying machines off their backs stepping on the Zergling chest and pulled the bladed arms off. Deftly flipping the bladed arms around they each promptly impaled the Zerglings with their own blades before stomping on their heads with their heavy armored boots.

"Ah damn that was close. You ok Harriette," Zula asked.

"Yeah yeah i'm fine. "Harriette turned to the others. "Hey guys I thought you had our backs?"

"Sorry the damn things got past us." Jonathan answered. "There were just to many of them to take out before they got in close. If we had more space we could have-"

"Ahh!" Harriette yelled reaching out with both arms as she glanced up for a moment shocking her team and the personnel watching the training exercise from the control room. "This is why we need melee weapons. If you had a big ass axe or hammer you could have just split that Zergling in half or smashed em in one hit," she yelled.

"Uh? swords and axes Harriette?."Reginald asked. "I think guns are much better then-"

"Oh! don't get be started Reginald. I know i'm not a strategist but what happened just know. And in the hundreds of other training drills these past few years is a clear evidence that melee weapons would be useful in CQB since the Zerg are going to try and get in close at some point. Or like all the time and if were outnumbered were all dead meat so look me in the eyes?... helmet and tell me that a melee weapon would be better in close combat then a gun."

"Shotguns are good in close combat!" Reginald said.

"Limited ammo" Harriette stated.

"Swords get dull or brake so it's the same difference, And I don't know about you but I've never heard of a blade that can cut Zerg armor." Reginald shot back.

Everyone was quit a moment as Harriette and Reginald locked eyes.

Manfred turned to Zula. "She just wants that giant hammer she dew up doesn't she?"

"Yep. But I agree with her tactical assessment about the need for close quarter weapons. Even a Tactical Shotgun would be at a disadvantage against multiply close attackers coming in at different angles, and that would be par for the course with the real Zerg."

Reginald *sighed*. "Ok we'll talk more about this later, but for now let's get the job done ok people!"

Team 1 agreed to bring the matter of melee weapons up with their superiors later but for now they continued on to their objective. A hour passed as the Spartans of team 1 fought their way through the network of tunnels as the mechanical Zerg hounded them at nearly every turn but eventually they reached the target point.

"Take out that spine crawler!" Reginald ordered as he blasted a Hunter killer just before it attacked Jonathan with its giant triple claw blades. The metal body collapsed to the ground after its upper head was removed by three hyper velocity rounds.

"Yes sir," the two resident explosive experts replied as they fired at the spine crawler.

The base of the spine crawler shaped machine exploded lifting some of the pressure off Team 1 but more zerg just kept pouring out from the hive area.

"Were getting nowhere!" Zula stated.

"I agree," Jonathan said.

Assessing the situation Reginald looked about the battlefield as his team brought down zerg after zerg as quickly as they appeared with neither side getting anywhere but their ammo would run out sooner or later. Reginald then spotted the corpse of the Hunter killer he had taken down and a idea relating to his teams earlier conversation came to him. ["Harriette!] he called over the radio.

[Yeah?]

[Can you rip the arms off that Hunter killer and use them like... swords or something. I got a plan]

Under her helmet Harriette smiled. [Yes sir.]

[Then everyone cover Harriette as she gets her new toys]

[Yes sir!] everyone in team 1 replied.

Harriette sprinted from cover running across the battlefield as her teammates covered her with deadly precision fire on any target that so much as looks her way. After the harrowing sprint Harriette reached the Hunter killer and pulled out her knife and begun slicing through the CNT muscles of the robot. Putting the knife away she then grabbed the arms putting a foot on the headless upper body and pulled the enhanced strength of both her augmented body and the suit giving her the power to brake the arms at the shoulder joints, wrenching the arms off their former owner.

Harriette flipped the two triple bladed arms end over end and held them like blades. "Oh yeah fun time's here!"

Harriette took a step forward bending both legs and holding the hunter killer arms out to her sides. She had been waiting to cut loose and use the enhanced speed and agility the augmentations and suit gave her but nothing really gave her a good enough reason to go all out, until now. In a explosion of speed she sprinted forward her feet digging deep gouges into the ground with every step as she sidestepped Hydralisks spines and twisting away from Zergling claws, swinging her new weapons tearing through the zerg in her path and leaving swath destruction in her wake. The dumb AI of the simulant Zerg were to slow in their reactions to counter the rapid and graceful movement's of the Spartan as she danced across the battlefield leaping spinning kicking and ripping the mechanical Zerg apart.

Stunned by the sudden flurry of destruction the rest of team 1 stood there a moment in awe of their teammate.

"Holy shit I knew she was fast but damn," Jonathan exclaimed as he watched the carnage unfold.

"Enough gawking more shooting. Back her up." Reginald ordered.

As the gun fire of her teammates ripped through the flanks of the metal Zerg. Harriette (the distraction) brought the triple blades down on a Zergling piercing into its metal spine and wrenched the blades out while jump spinning mid air and kicked a leaping Zergling out of the air. She sprinted at a pair of approaching Roaches shooting their mock acid at her which she twisted around as she closed the gap, leaping on one's back planting both triple scythes into its thick neck and hopped forwards tipping its head off. The other Roach moved in to attach with its own scythes but missed its target as she leaped out of range and then back in close again right in the face of the Roach and kicked it's jaw so hard the Roach was sent flipping onto its back.

Harriette leaped onto the upside down Roaches belly and started cutting gouges into its less armored underside exposing the vital inner parts that made it function and toar them out too. Just as soon as the second Roach was hollowed out the first switched to its secondary CPU brain and started attacking again only to be blasted by Reginald.

Harriette turned around. "Thanks."

"Your welcome. And nice job lieutenant. Now we just have to finish off the hive and-"

 _ **"ROOOOAAAARRRR !"**_

Everyone froze a moment as the ground started to shake. "Uh what the hell cave quake?" Manfred asked.

"No!" Zula replied as she pointed to a cave entrance where a giant three story building sized Metal Zerg walked out from.

"ULTRALISK!" Jonathan yelled.

Meanwhile in a monitor room in the nearby UNSC base jointly shared by NeoCortex personnel Two scientists watched as the Spartans of team 1 scrambled to get to cover from the heavy spine attacks of the massive Zerg. Its oversized ttr (Tactical training Rounds) spine rounds leaving paint marks on the mock Hive the Spartans were hiding behind.

"So you think it was mean to send Steve (the Ultralisk) in?"

The other scientist turned to his partner. "Steve? what are we naming those toaster ovens now?"

"That's Lethal toaster ovens to you. And yes. You just transferred to this division so you don't know how boring it can get here."

"Boring?!" The second scientist replied turning back to the wall of three dozen display screens all showing hundreds of Spartans in different parts and levels of the tunnel network shooting, blasting and in general kicking simulant Zerg ass.

"Give it a month and you'll feel like your life is one giant action movie."

* * *

 **New Horizon station**

 **Sphere section, Hanager 12**

"Ok that should do it. Try and activate it now," a technician yelled in the large hanger.

Inside a prototype of her own creation Selvaria in a helmeted blue and white pilots suit held onto two glowing blue orbs or pure Ragnite as she concentrated. The back of the cockpit started to glow with blue tracer lines as the whin of a engine grew louder. "How's the system looking?"

The technician looked to his tablet indicating the new drive was working much better than the previous tests, one in which the thing nearly exploded dew to instability in the power transfer system. "Looking good... Finally"

"It's about time," Another technician said as he walked in front of the test prototype.

The testing continued for another four hours as Selvaria and the two technicians ran test after test on the newly functioning prototype drive dubbed the RN drive for the highly purified sphere of Ragnite it was constructed from, much like the Valkof class cannons mounted on certain types of ships in the UNSC fleet.

The molecular and atomic matrix of purified Ragnite have some similarities with DNA and a living organisms cell structure and a few scientists have even said that Ragnite is actually a new type of life form, completely different from any known kind but is still alive just in a different way then most. As for Selvaria herself she feels that Ragnite is alive in its own way. She could feel the pulse of energy flow through its structure and the psionic power emanated by it. Much like the psionic power Terrans have but more... pure and not influenced by one's emotions, memories or egos.

"All right brake time miss Selvaria," said a technician.

Selvaria gave a sigh of relief as she climbed out of the cockpit like seat onto a small platform and down a ladder. "I'll be back in a half hour," Selvaria said popping two latches on her helmet, taking it off and revealing her shoulder length hair now a half black half blue color with silver highlights at the tips. Not only was her hair different but she had filled out more with a more womanly figure over the past five years and was now in her mid teens.

"I'll take that miss Selvaria," a technician said as he was handed the helmet.

"Thanks." Selvaria said as she walked off down the nearby hallway. Not bothering to change as she would be back to finish the days testing of her prototype MS unit. A concept and creation of her own mind and supported by both Aliasse and miss Ellen Reid.

* * *

 **{-Flash back-}**

After the incident with the psiker criminal Nash at the Reach caramoney (who's real name was Cage lawson) Selvaria traveled with Ellen Reid and Aliasse to the Earth arriving at the NeoCortex HQ to explain why and how she knows the things she knows.

In her office Ellen Reid sat at her desk with both Selvaria and Aliasse seated before her. "Now then Selvaria I would like to know how you knew about the Zerg forces on Proxima centauri b?. You did say you would explain it in a secure place."

The young Selvaria took in a deep breath as she explained that she was actually from the future and another dimension. But was originally conceived in this universe. But her mother who is the original Ellen and the Swarm Empress stopped Selvaria's development when she was just a cluster of a few thousand cells in the womb. This combine with the fact she was deprived raw unrefined Ragnite in her diet after birth contributed to inhibiting her development as a valkyrur which was why she had brown hair instead of the typical Darcsen blue or silver. What little Ragnite she did have came from her mother but that was only a tiny amount and was far from what was needed.

Ellen Reid brought a hand to her chin in thought. "I see. This is a odd situation."

"I wonder why She stopped your development?"

Selvaria was a little surprised by Aliasse and the elderly Ellen Reids willingness to believe her story so easily. "You believe me. Just like that?"

"I highly doubt you would lie to us about this,"Aliasse stated." and besides I can sense that your telling the truth. And no I didn't read you mind. I respect your privacy."

"Err thank you." Selvaria took a deep breath before continuing. "To explain further there will be a... major galactic conflict against a... yet unknown enemy in the far future. And things... well they don't exactly go our way and we lose a few... a lot of good people before we win. At least my mom told me. So to shift the outcome more in our favor mother and father sent me here to the past to do something I can't talk about yet," Selvaria sighed. "I was supposed to stay in Gallia until I was a adult so I could get a full diet of Ragnite and become a valkyrur... but that guy! Nash or Cage or whatever his name was grabbed me and sold me to that fat slob in that space colony."

Aliasse closely watched Selvaria's face express great frustration at this. "That's where I found you. On Arden colony," she stated more fact then a question.

"Yeah."

Ellen Reid smiled as her theory concerning the relationship between Valkyrur and Ragnite was confirmed. "I see so the creation of a Valkyrur is dependent on Ragnite being in their system."

Aliasse turned to Ellen Reid. "What do you mean?"

Ellen Reid looked Aliasse in the eyes. "Well i've always had a theory concerning the relationship and similarities between Ragnite purification and the way Valkyrur awaken from being normal humans."

Aliasse's mind started running at this revelation. "Are you saying the purification process of Ragnita to a psionically active state and the way Valkyrur awaken are the same!"

Ellen unblinkingly replied. "Yes. I've done many tests on myself in order to keep any information I find secret. And my findings show that I have a few genes that only a few Galliens have. And my body has a deficiency of Ragnite in my genetic makeup. No doubt that was why I was unable to become a perfect clone of the original Ellen."

"What!. Ragnita in your genes?" Aliasse asked a little confused.

"Well to be more accurate it's really Ragnite molecules lining the genetic helix and cellular structure of my body. And yours Aliasse."

Aliasse sighed understanding the explanation. "Ok so this Ragnite in my... in all Valkyrur genetics is what gives us our powers?"

Ellen reid shook her head. "No but I believe that it is a major reason why Valkyrur are so powerful. And as for the valkyria created by the Jaeger pharmaceutical company during the First Zerg war. I believe their powers were a result of the Ragnite and Valkyrur gens and blood being transplanted into their bodies. But their bodies weren't able to retain the Ragnite so they would lose their powers over time. But the Valkyrur genes remained in them but went dormant and were transferred to their children and to their children's children, resulting in the current Terran psikers. However after many tests it seems that most don't have any traces or at most only small traces of Ragnita in their systems for those born on Earth."

Aliasse thought a moment. "Hmm it would seem that people can have psionic powers without having any Ragnite in their systems. But then why is Ragnite needed to make Valkyrur in the first place?"

"What do Valkyrur have that all other psikers don't?" Ellen Reid asked Aliasse already knowing the answer herself.

"...Aura!" Aliasse answered.

"Correct. I believe the Valkyrur's aura is the result of their special genes that allow their bodies to biologically gather, retain and to purify Ragnite in a physiological reaction that reacts to great bodily harm. I also believe Ragnite is a variation of the Khaydarin crystals the Protoss use in their technology and to amplify their psionic powers."

"So... perhaps Ragnite was created to especially to make Valkyrur's!" Aliasse wondered.

"Perhaps?" Ellen Reid said turning to Selvaria. "Since your from the future Selvaria why don't you tell us."

Selvaria just pouted and looked away. "Not telling. No spoilers."

Both Ellen Reid and Aliasse laughed at the girls reaction as she sighed with their laughter realizing it had been a joke.

"I can't tell you much other then what I already have. The time isn't right."

Ellen and Aliasse shared a look of concern for the young one. Not only has she been carrying around this secret but also a burdan all on her own.

"Selvaria I will use every resource at my disposal to help you become a valkyrur."

Selvaria looked up to Ellen Reid. "Really," she asked her eyes almost tearing up.

"Of course. We are practically family after all since im a clone of your mother. I'll have some unrefined Ragnite made available to you at the Psi-academy upon your return.

Selvaria's face darkened as she was reminded of her human friends. "I'd rather not return there."

Shocked Aliasse asked why. "Why not?"

"Mmm eh... because Valkyrur are immortal and when I become one... I don't want to see my friends grow older without me. They'll see me as a freak and I don't want that or to see them die from old age while I stay the same.

Aliasse remembered her own memories of this. The way she remained young and beautiful while everyone she knew aged growing older and dying. It's one of the reasons she doesn't stay in one place very long. "Are you sure Selvaria," she turned to Aliasse. "Are your sure that you won't regret abandoning them just to make yourself feel better."

Selvaria looked down in thought. She really didn't want to leave her friends but at the same time she knew the difference's in their life span would cause trouble in the long run. She felt torn between the two choices.

"Well if they are willing I may have a solution," Ellen Reid said catching the young Selvarias attention.

"Your not thinking what I think your thinking are you?" Aliasse asked crossing her arms.

"What do you mean?" Selvaria asked.

Ellen Reid explained the process she had been using to maintain her youth and extend her life span but weather or not her friends would undergo the process was still their choice entirely.

 **{-End FlashBack-}**

* * *

Selvaria made her way through the stations hallways to her private quarters. Upon entering she went to her desk and punched in a security code unlocking a secret hatch on the ground where she kept her Ragnite tablets. Pills filled with ground up raw Ragnite which she has been taking for the past five years and the result was her heir changing color to the typical Darcsen blue with a tiny bit of silver at the tips. She didn't like the black at the base of her hair though but the scientists and doctors Ellen Reid sent to observe and understand the process of how a Valkyrur absorbs Ragnite and awakens says that it will continue changing until all her hair is all blue or silver.

Selvaria popped the pills and put the bottle away before going to the cafetiera for some lunch. A moment after she sat down with her tray of food someone she thought she would never see again sat down across from her.

"Long time no see Selvi."

Selvaria looked up to see Hibiki a bit older and filled out in a NeoCortex uniform. "Hibiki!" she said with gladness evident in her tone of voice.

"Yeah finally. I got that transfer i've been waiting on for the past four months. Just so I could be here with you. We did make a deal about our future didn't we."

"I'm glad... surprised your here I thought you wouldn't be coming to New Horizon station for a long time," Selvaria said in glee as Hibiki took a bit out of her apple chewed and swallowed.

"Yeah well i've been working my ass off the past few years to get a position here."Hibiki said gesturing with her hands" You know how hard it is for a teen, even a psiker teen to compete in the world of competitive corporate workers. It's not easy. But my parents were really glad that their little sunshine is moving up in the world. Eh but the pruds in the Psi-academy were quite reluctant to let me take the early graduation test just a year after we had our talk about... you know what."

Selvaria took a bit out of her stake and chewed and swallowed as she listened. " *Gulp* Still I figured it would have take another year for you to get here? How did you get transfered so quickly. I thought you didn't want to be given special treatment because of who you knew."

Hibiki leaned back arms crossed, eyes closed with a proud look on her face. "Yeah but as it turns out I'm really skilled in mechanics and stuff like that. Heavy lifting is easy with my abilities and I can fix a Scorpion mbt in nine minutes flat on my own. I timed it back in mechanics class."

Selvaria looked impressed and surprised at Hibiki's chosen professen. "So you became a engineer like you mother huh."

Hibiki took some more bits out of her food. "Yeah I figured go with what i'm good at. Taking thing's apart and putting them back together again."

"I bet the fine points of engineering was hard to get down since mathematics was always your weakest subject."

Hibiki sighed looking crestfallen. "Yeah yeah. But it isn't like I can't do the math I just don't like it. The numbers and math and stuff just confuses me some times."

"And gives you a headache."

"And gives me a headache...huh?" Hibiki looked up to see Justin Alter standing behind Selvaria. "When did you get here? " Hibiki asked.

"Well..." Justin started as he sat down beside Selvaria who was staring at him. "I was on the transport right behind yours."

"Really I didn't sense you at all when I arrived here." Hibiki said blinking at the teen as he ate his food.

" _Welp_ *Gulp* Well I was a few hundred miles behind you. I only knew because I asked the stations personnel chief about any new arrival's that fit your description."

"Hibiki." Selvaria said. "Your not supposed to use your powers to sense other psikers like that. I must have been asleep when you did that otherwise I would have sensed you as well."

Hibiki sighed. "Ok ok I won't do it again. So what's your field of expertise Justin."

"Well i've always had a interest in computer programing and Ragnite and it's applied uses not only in fusion reactors and antigravity and gravity plating as well but also the quantum mechanics of how it works. Especially considering the new Shaw-Fujikawa slipstream drive. I hear the slipspace drive has some purified Ragnite in its component's."

"Wow your a egg head. I never would have guessed at that," Hibiki teased.

"And I would have never thought you would become a grease monkey the way you hated getting even a little dirt on your cloths," Justin jabed back.

"I only hated getting my clothes dirty because my mom made them herself. She was kind of obsessed with making just about all my clothes back in school. She likes making things in general. Guess that's where I got my talent from."

"You guys," Both Hibiki and Justin gave Selvaria their attention. "I'm glad both of you... agreed to the thing I asked you about. And im glad were all here together."

All three of them joined hands and shook sharing a moment of comradery.

"So what have you been up to Selvi the two of us just arrived."

Selvaria looked at both of her friends. "Well..."

After finishing their meal Selvaria brought Hibiki and Justin to the hanger 12.

"Wow!" "Wow!"

Both Hibiki and Justin stood dumbfounded at the nine meter tall white and gray bipedal robot. Exposed skeleton and components showing all over as its armor and frame was not even finished. The most distinctive feature's it had was the large green circle shaped chest palting and the cone shaped power plant on its back.

"It's a special project that I asked to start up and well after a few years here we are."

Both Hibiki and Justin toar their eyes away from the robot to stare at Selvaria. "So what is it for?" "It doesn't seem all that viable as a combat system being high like that," "And it's way too big to use in open tarran. Enemies would pick it off easily. And it would be a pain to maintain with all the parts its has. Way more than a normal tank or jet." "And it would be slow walking from place to place."

Both Hibiki and Justin gave their honest opinions on the prototype and its flaws to practical modern combat as they saw them.

"Uhhh." Selvaria felt embarrassed at the honest opinions of her friends but it did hurt her feelings a little bit. "Thanks to miss Aliasse's approval I well we created this prototype as a next generation heavy planetary combat system which will have transforming fighter types for space combat. But production models of the current prototype will only able to fight on land, but the system is modular so it can be equipped with a wide variety of boosters, Weapons, shields, and armor types for combat on a planet, in space and in water."

Both Hibiki and Justin based on what they know about science and engineering could not see much combat practicality in the giant robot.

"Listen Selvi I know you like anime and manga but a system like this wouldn't be that practical on the battlefield."

Selvaria just stared at them.

"The weapons would be impractical if they aren't bolted on the frame and It's size would make it a big target. Not to mention Smaller units like Cyclops exosuits would be much cheaper and mass producible," Justin said as he and Hibiki continued to get a death glare from Selvaria.

"Zerg."

Hibiki and Justin felt stupid not realizing basically everything concerning the Zerg and their capabilities was complete and utter Bull Shit as their speed of reproduction and combat abilities had forced humanity to completely rewrite their concept of what's possible, impossible or practical.

"Right...!" Hibiki replied." *Sigh* Well if your going to do this we may as well help."

With a smile Selvaria proceeded to explain in detail the full capabilities of the robot she had dubbed G-Zero.

* * *

 **New Horizon station lower hemisphere,** ExparimentalShip construction yard.

In the massive ship construction dock at the bottom of the station the first Infinity class dreadnought rested in it's giant mag clamps as four figures watched it from a observation window.

"Well shes a big girl I give you that. But is she battle worthy?" asked UNSC representative Colonel Aims.

"Yes for the most part." DR. Hadaway replied. "The final touches are being applied now."

"Who will serve as captain of the ship?" asked UTG representative Briella Nevin.

Dr Hadaway turned to the woman. "The same person who captained the Enterprise I hear."

"Captain Cliff Pesaro then." Colonel Aims mused as he held his chine in thought. "He has a above average record from his time in the navy-."

Briella cut in. "And with his popularity from being the captain of the first FTL capable ship in history he has a lot of sway in political decisions. So I can see him getting the position as captain of the Infinity. But why?. It's not like he can't just retire with all he's achieved."

Colonel Aims chuckled at this. "Haha. He may be navy but he still thinks like a UNSC soldier."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Briella asked.

Colonel Aims was about to answer when the fourth member of the group spoke up. "Duty miss Briella. Mister Pesaro feels that it's his duty to continue to fight so he put in his name for consideration as captain of the Infinity," explained Ellen Reid as the other three turned to her.

"I see." Briella said. "But miss Reid I expect that the decision to place him as captain was based on his suitability for the job instead of his popularity."

"Of course. It would reflect badly on all of us if he was not the right man for the job and caused our defeat in the coming battle," Ellen Reid replied.

Dr Hadaway stroked his chin in thought. "Speaking of which. When will the invasion of Alpha Centauri begin. I hear that the UNSC had been building up it's forces for the past five years?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Colonel Aims. "Heh, em well as it's true the UNSC has been building up it's forces its not completely ready for the hornets nest we'll be stirring up just yet."

"What do you mean by that Colonel?" Ellen Reid asked.

The colonel rubbed the back of his neck as he sighed. "*Sigh* Well for the past few years we've been keeping an eye on Zerg activity at Alpha Centauri with FTL capably ONI stealth ships."

"I never heard about this!? What did you find?" Briella asked a little angry at being out of the loop.

"The Zerg have a massive fleet in the system numbering around five hundred. And that's not counting the fleet orbiting the planet Proxima B."

"And then there's the Zerg defenders on the planet's surface. Ellen Reid stated."What's the UNSCs force numbers."

Colonel Aims looked up thinking over the exact numbers. "Hmm well last time I checked We had a fleet of over seven hundred and fifty. But that's counting the defense fleets of both Earth and Reach."

"So were just about even in over all strength"Briella noted. "But I highly doubt all of our forces will be allowed to be deployed all at once. It would leave Earth and Reach vulnerable."

"I recommend we deploy all available forces," Ellen Reid stated as the others gave her their full attention.

"And why is that miss Reid?" Briella asked.

"Because this coming battle is more symbolic then strategic."

"Colonel Aims and Briella sheared a glance of confusion at the odd meaning as Ellen Reid continued.

"What I mean is the swarm empress has set everything up so in order for us Terrans to progress and spread through the Galaxy we have to first take the Alpha centauri star system as proof of our power and resolve to move forward. Why else would she put a hive cluster in the closest star system to Earth which is also the most likely place for us to first send a extrasolar colonising effort."

Everyone reflected on Ellen Reids words and found no fault in them.

"So we can expect that if we don't take Alpha Centauri then every star system we go to will be Zerg infested right," Briella said nearly as a sigh.

"Yes, that's what I think anyway given the records of the swarm empresses speeches from after the end of the first Zerg war."

Colonel Aims shrugged turning to DR Hadaway. "Dr I think your little pets will greatly help out the planetary landing operation when it starts. I hope their combat ready."

DR Hadaway gave the colonel a smile of confidence. "My little pets as you call them are more then combat ready colonel. They've been helping in the Spartans training for the past few years and have greatly improved in their AI battle instincts. I am confident that they will perform their duties well colonel."

The colonel nodded as a mechanical noise caught everyone's attention. As everyone turned to the noise they saw a row of five large doors each about fifty meters wide open up along the side of the Infinity as five long gantry walkways extended from the docking bays walls and connected with the ship. As they watched rows of four legged mechs and Simulant Zerg march across the gantry ways into the Infinity along with UNSC vehicles of differing types.

"I recognise the Zerg bots but what are those four legged mechs with them?" Colonel Aims asked.

"Hmm oh those." Dr Hadaway replied. "Their the new unit I helped redesign from a mech used in a criminal attack on the Psi-academy a few years back."

Briella shot the Dr a look of surprise. "Do you mean the attack that traitor instigated when he stole the prototype Psi-screens."

"Yes. Apparently he had used his Technopathy to design and construct a mech that he used to ad himself in his criminal actions. I found the thing to be interesting so I had the schematics of the original copied and sent to me. It's not a simulant Zerg but I believe the Marines of the UNSC will find it quite useful," the DR explained.

The colonel gave the good Dr a interested glance before turning back to the marching robots. "So what's the capabilities of the uuh whats its name?"

"Well after giving it much thought I decided on Goliath seeing as it's just a bigger more heavily armed and armored version of a exosuit like the Cyclops."

"And it abilities?"

"It has between six to eight inches of high grade multi-layered nanoceramic titanium armor and twin heavy ARC-1000 cannons mounted on the sides of its upper torso, both of which can serve as long range artillery or direct fire weapons. Two heavy machine guns mounted on top its chest, with twin vls missile launchers on its back. Equipment wise it has some of the new multi-optical spectrum jammer smoke grenade launchers mounted around its body along with land rollers mounted on its legs allowing it to switch between walking and driving over the terrain. I'm also working on a stealth version but its incomplete at the moment."

"Hehe I see. Well i'm sure the Marines are gona love your creation Dr," the Colonel replied as the door to the observation room opened and Aliasse walked in.

"Sorry i'm late."Aliasse said as she approached the others who had now turned to her. "Shall we begin the tour now."

The group agreed and all of them walked out to another hallway leading to a umbilical tunnel leading into the Infinity. The group took a maglev tram through the massive ship to the bridge where they met the ships AI.

"Good morning Athena," Aliasse said as her group entered the bridge where a few technicians were working here and there.

The large room was shaped like a box with a raised half circle of terminals and holo screens on one side with the captains chair along the wall in the middle giving the captain a full view of the bridge and every work station of the bridge crew. There was also a raised square pedestal in front of the captains chair where they gathered around and as they did a full sized hologram of a woman appeared. She had golden hair in a white robe with golden bejeweled armlets and earrings with half the cloth uncovering her chest with a ornate breast armor shown underneath.

"Good morning Aliasse. I see the tour has started," said the smart AIs hologram avatar.

"Yes Athena we're just about to start. Would you please bring up a schematic of the ship please."

The AI bowed as a hologram of the Infinity grew out from the pedestal. Across the holograms hull were many dots of differing shapes and colors with a legend of what they each represent shown on the left side of the ships hologram with more details shown on the right side of the holoship.

 **Designation UNSC Infinity class supercarrier.**

Length, 5,694.2 metres (18,682 ft) Over 3 miles

Width, 833.3 metres (2,734 ft)

Height, 1,041.2 metres (3,416 ft)

Mass 907,000,000 metric tons

Engines 8x, XR2 Boglin Fields: S81/X-DFR Fusion drives

Slipspace Drive, 1x Mark 3 gen-1 Shaw-Fujikawa translight drive

Power plants, 3 primary Deuterium fusion reactors, 50 secondary Hydrogen reactors

Hull armor, 490 centimetres (190 inch thick) Composite, CNT Nanofiber reinforced E-carbon, Ceramic and Titanium armor plating.

 **Sensor systems,** Long-range cluster networked sensor pods, tachyon hyper scanner, type 90 Radar, Wide area scanner Spectroscopes, LIDAR beam scanner.

 **Internal storage and capacity.**

20X large hangar bays

30x small hangerbays

300x armories

30x medbays

5x main training rooms

20x secondary training rooms

50x Mjolnir armor storage, maintenance and assembly bays

20x Spartan augmentation bays. 40x AUG pods each.

80x Marine and ODST barracks and armories

50x Spartan barracks and armories

20x weapon assembly and repair bays

10x Internal 3D molecular fabrication bays

4x Internal industrial scale 3D molecular fabrication bays

 **Weapons systems**

2x Primary Forward mounted Valkof class psionic particle cannons.

Secondary armaments, 8x scaled down 1/5th sized Valkof class minicannons. 16x 300mm antiship MAC cannons.

250x M42 Archer mk5 anti-ship Missile Pods, 24 missiles per pod (Secondary)

250x M75 Rapier anti-fighter, bomber Missile pods, 30 missiles per pod (Tertiary)

400x M96 Howler multi-purpose Missile pods, 20 missiles per pod (Quaternary)

15x HAVOK Tactical Nuclear Weapon launch tubes.

 **Point-defense armaments.**

500x quad linked Phalanx anti-fighter gatling turret network

10x Mk 51 Portable Onager anti fighter bomber MAC cannon network

85x M85 Scythe Anti-Aircraft flak Gun network

150X M97 Lance Guided Missile Weapon System network

 **Crew Complement.**

4000 navel crew

800 Technicians

700 Engineers

5400 Marines

2000 Spartans

750 ODST

300 Air Force personnel

 **Ground vehicles**

25× M510 Mammoths MOB mobile operating and repair base

350× M12 Warthogs LRVs light reconnaissance Vehicle

290× M820 Scorpions MBTs Main battle tanks

150x Mastodon APC's Armored personnel carriers

80x M470 Kodiak mobile Artillery

 **Combat Aerial craft and orbital transports**

400x D82-EST Darter rapid orbital resupply dropship

30× D96-TCE Albatross heavy dropship

250× D79-TC Pelicans medium dropship

250x UH-144 Falcon Light transport

150× F-42R Broadswords, Multi role fighter bomber.

150x GA-TL2 Longswords, Air space superiority fighter

1000× SOEIV, Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle

250× HOIDP, Heavy Orbital insertion Drop Pod

High pitched *whistle*. "Color me impressed. This is more like a mobile base then a ship!" Colonel Aims said in a very impressed tone.

"That's one of the functions of the Infinity Colonel." Athena replied. " The Infinity can also serve as both a massive mobile deployment and resupply platform for a invasion force while also functioning as a flagship for a fleet."

"Just like the massive class ten Zerg that lead the invasion force that hit Reach almost a hundred years ago," Aliasse explained.

"Hmm I suspected that was the purpose of the new ship class," Briella mused.

Dr Hadaway turned to the two representative's. "In any case the Infinity is ready for a crew including the Spartans. Colonel how many of our super soldiers have completed their training so far."

The colonel smiled turning to the Dr. "Hmm last time I checked there were about 3000 still in their first year of training and about oh... 10,000 who have started their final mock battle training against your creations Dr."

Aliasse gave a pleased smile. "That's more than we predicted for the Spartan recruiting program."

The colonel shot her a smirk. "HA HA HA. Yes well once details on the Spartan program spread the number of recruits from the Marines and special forces skyrocketed. The recruiters had to use your screening system to choose the best possible matches in mental and physical health to reduce the number of applicant's. There was major competition for a spot on the Spartan recruiting roster."

"It's reassuring to know that's there were so many recruits for the program. But the Infinity can't hold that many Spartans." Athena stated.

Aliasse smiled and turned to the AI hologram. "That's no worry. The new Valhalla class battle-cruisers have just rolled off the shipyard and they are ready and able to carry the rest of the Spartans into battle."

"Speaking of," the colonel said. "Have they undergone the necessary refit's?"

"Yes they have and the last one should be moving out of dry dock now. Their scheduled to arrive here in one week along with the first batch of Spartan recruits and the rest of the fleet."

Dr Hadaway crossed his arms. "Hmm so they moved up the time table for the invasion."

"Yes unfortunately. "Ellen Reid said." It seems the lady president wishes for the operation to take the Alpha centauri system to be the last achievement on her record as UTG president."

Briella Nevin shrugged. "Well it is her last year as president. And if everything go's smoothly it won't be the worry of the next president."

"Well what is the new invasion date then?" Dr Hadaway asked.

The Colonel stroked his chin. "After the Fleet arrives here at New Horizon station they will undergo the retrofit with that new armor tech NeoCortex has recently developed and after that there will be a month to organize the fleets forces so I would say."

"Jun the twenty second," Athena answered catching everyone's attention.

"Uh yeah Jun the twenty second," the colonel finished.

"Athena please change main holo display to the Alpha centauri system with all the information we have currently of the location and disposition of the Zerg forces."

"Yes ma'am," the smart AI replied as the hologram shifted from that of the Infinity to the Alpha centauri star system.

The triple star system map showed the twin stars Alpha Centauri A near the center of the system with Centauri B orbiting it along with two other planets orbiting them with the the third star Centauri C also known as Proxima Centauri far away from the binary stars with a lone planet Proxima Centauri b orbiting the third star.

The view zoomed in showing one of the inner planets had a massive cloud of red dots with a smaller cloud orbiting Proxima Centauri b. Nearly one third of the planets lower hemisphere of the planet also shown a red color indicating the super hive clusters location.

"There's two fleets?! That's different from the map I looked at last week," Colonel Aims grumbled.

"This map has the latest sensor update from the last ONI stealth prowler sent to the Alpha centauri system," Athena explained.

The colonel gave a dejected sigh. "Well now we know of the other reason they sped up the operation's deadline. Whats the numbers looking at Athena?"

"I approximate fifty thousand Zerg in the inner systems fleet containing two confirmed class 10 Zerg Leviathans, 100 class 9 alpha Behemoths, 210 class 8 Behemoths, 500 class 7 Broodlords and many other smaller Zerg breeds making up the rest of the swarms fleet forces. The smaller fleet orbiting Proxima Centauri b is half that number."

"Can we win against that kind of force?" Briella exclaimed in surprise.

"We can." Ellen Reid stated. "If were smart and make the best use of our forces and weapons.

Everyone just gave the elderly woman a look of honest approval of her words.

* * *

 **Date,** Jun 22

 **Location,** Zerg fleet in orbit of Alpha Centauri B

In a bright spiral flash a Alpha Leviathan warped in system. Its size dwarfing any other Zerg in the fleet even beating out its fellow Leviathans in size as its 15 kilometers long body was more enlong gated and wider than normal with many spikes and a few tendrils extending from its ridiculously armored body. The other Zerg in the fleet moved out of the way as the Alpha Leviathan which served as the mobile hive cluster and command ship of the Swarm Empress drifted to the center of the fleet.

 **Alpha Leviathan Nerv center**

Swarm empress Ellen in her Praetorian symbiote armor sat upon a ornate chitin throne watching the stars and her swarm fleet on the 360 degree bio screen as one of the organic doors opened.

"It looks like everything's ready for the fire works to start. Now we just need the guests," Ellen mused as she looked upon her vast fleet.

"I wonder when the humans will arrive," said Izsha as she sat down on the creep cushioned chiton chair beside her empress.

Ellen glanced at her zerg infested clone noting the new ornate black, gold and red armlets, greaves, chest plate and circlet on her forehead. "Starting a new fashion trend?"

Izsha laughed. "Hehe. No but I can see why you would find these psi-amplifiers interesting."

"Oh so that's what they are."Ellen said turning her eyes back to the bio screen. "I suppose you would want something like that considering your deficiency in that area."

"It goes without saying that i'm not as psionically powerful as you or the brood queens," Izsha stated in a irritated tone. "But i've found other ways to increase my psionic powers."

Ellen rolled her eyes. "Namely by reverse engineering the Tal'darim tech we stole way back when. It only took you a few hundred years. *Chuckle*"

Izsha sighed. "Yes well given the fact that I had to start from scratch and learn how their SUPER advanced tech worked I think did quite well for myself. Although Abastein did help out a bit with the design."

"If you want to have your powers increased it would be a simple matter for Abastein to tune your essence to increase your psionic powers."

Izaha huffed in a bit annoyed. "I wonder where that new information concerning Soul synchronization of Essence came from?" Izaha glanced at Ellen." And where Solus has been for the better part of a century?"

Ellen shrugged. "Like all the other times I told you he's on a top secret long term mission."

"With three of your closest Brood queens?" Izsha retorted crossing both her arms and tentacle hair over her chest.

Ellen sighed at the atmosphere between the two. A moment later there was a psionic signal through the hive mind from a formation of Overseers at the far edge of the system. They reported that a massive human fleet had arrived with one ship being far bigger than the others leading the fleet.

Ellen and Iszha both linked with the Overseers seeing what they saw. A fleet of hundreds of ships of varying shapes and sizes all looking disorganised in their formation which was scattered across half the size of the system.

They also noted that some ships had the distinctive hammerhead shape of battlecruisers from Starcraft. Upon seeing this Ellen smirked at this turn of events.

The two Zerg commanders looked through the fleet finding the biggest ship at the lead. Shaped like a long Hexagon with rectangle wing units running along 2/3rds of its length with forty giant hangar doors along its underside.

"Thats a big ship," Izsha noted as a bright flash or laser fire vaporised the Overseers cutting the link.

Both Ellen and Izsha jerked at the sudden pain and loss of the Overseers they were connected to.

"Well it's about time they arrived," Ellen stated as she gave the fleet the signal to attack.

* * *

Onboard the Infinity class supercarrier captain Cliff Pesaro let out a sigh of relief as the Overseers were burned by laser fire.

"Athena hows the fleet dong?"

There was a five second pause before Athena's holo avatar blinked to life beside the captain's chair. "Fifty percent of the fleet warped over ten light minutes off course. It will take a few hours for the fleet to regroup unless they make a short in system warp jump... and I have Zerg warping in nine hundred kilometers off our starboard bow."

Just as the AI said that a rippling wave of flashing lights showed on screen as the ships hud indicated the Zergs forces range and numbers as the fleets tactical officers relayed orders to ships across the fleet to coordinate a counter attack.

"Athena what's the composition of the Zerg forces?" Captain Pesaro asked as he felt the situation out. His hands tightened around his chairs arms rests from the stress but then relaxed as he realised what he was doing and tried to calm down given the stack's involved.

"Mixed formation, Hundreds of Wyverns, Mutalisks, Guardians and Broodlords with hundreds of their smaller types along with ten Behemoths of known types and Twenty of unknown types."

Captain Pesaro blinked at that last part. "Athena what does unknown type mean?"

The AI turned her holo avatar's head to the captain. "As I said a Behemoth sized Zerg breed that doesn't fully match our information on Behemoths."

"Shit!. Its a new breed," The captain exclaimed as the ship shook violently.

 **Chapter End**

* * *

 **OVER-VERSE NOOBZILLA**

 **"Sniff Sniff. Something smells a little bit gundam in here." HE! HE!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Dimension,** Custom Dark Souls Under-verse

 **Location,** Undead Parish roof doorway access

* * *

 ***Summoning noise*** **With a glowing aura and golden form Solaire of Astora manifested in Noobzillas world.**

 **Solar took stock of his current surroundings and quickly noticed Noobzilla.**

 **"Oh hello Is... that you Noob of Zilla?!"**

 **Camera pans left to show Noobzilla in his Burning black knight armor set wilding a black knight greatsword glowing with a inner heat covered in blood which was slowly being evaporated into steam. The blood** **Sizzled as it** **was slowly vaporized by the armors inner fire which didn't harm it's wearer any.**

 **"Yep it's me. Just uh... you know... been slaying giant red Drakes and stuff."**

 **Solaire stood there a moment taking in the fact his companion had slayed a real Drake.**

 **"Ah. So that's where the blood came from," Said Solaire.**

 **"Yep. Got the things body parts too. Plan on making a drake armor and weapons set when I find a blacksmith," Noobzilla said as he pulled the Drakes head out of his Inventory plopping it down beside him selfe.**

 **"Mmm," Solaire was impressed at the accomplishment of his friend." Your quit the consumente warrior. I'm impressed. Now what did you call me for. Surely a few hollows aren't trouble for you."**

 **"Just fulfilling a promise to summon you should I have need and a little companionship isn't bad in a fight."**

 **"Ah I see, yes. Well shall we."**

 **Both Solaire and Noobzilla passed through the fog gate and onto the Parish rooftop. Suddenly there was a ear piercing roar followed by the flapping of wings. The Giant Gargoyle landed on the roof and roared again as it stared at the two invading it's territory.**

 **"I'll get up close attack directly you hit it at range from behind." Noobzilla said as he charged forward.**

 **Solaire watched as his companion ran at the larger beast. Feeling a little jealous at his bravery or stupidity... doesn't really matter which one. Solaire watched as the Gargoyle sweeped its halberd across the ground only for Noobzilla to leap up over it and plant a foot on the Creatures face before dropping down and cleaving the tail from its body in one stroke.**

 **Impressed again Solaire shook his head. "Huh hes light on his feet for wearing such heavy armor." Finishing his thoughts Solaire shot a few Lightning Spears at the Gargoyle hitting it right in the back after it had turned around to attack the one who took it's tail.**

 ***Yoink* "Mine now stone breath," Noobzilla taunted as he put the Gargoyle's tail in his inventory.**

 **A moment later the Gargoyle was stunned by lightning spears hitting its back.**

 **"Nice one Solaire but now it's my turn again."**

 **Noobzilla brought out his new Black Knight weapon the Black knight Ultra-greatsword and shouldered it bending his knees. The laws of physics still applied and the sword was heavy enough to pull Noobzilla around so the weapon had to be handled in a particular way otherwise it's useless in combat.**

 **Noobzilla turned to the side with his heavy weapon in both hands blocking a full power strike from the Gargoyles halberd. *CLANG!* The two weapons created a shower of sparks as they collided. Both Noobzilla and the Gargoyle shifted their legs and body** **repositioning** **to land the next strike. *CLANG!* the two weapons rebounded off eachother again as Solaire struck again with a second and third lightning spears into the Gargoyles back.**

 ***CLANG!* The gargoyle and Noobzillas weapons struk again repulsing each other but it was the Gargoyle still taking damage from the third member of the fight behind him. *CLANG!*CLANG!*CLANG!*CLANG!* The battle dragged on for a few minutes as the Gargoyle tried moving around only to get countered by Noobzilla keeping himself in front of the beast and Solaire behind.**

 ***Struss ZAP ZAP ZAP.* Struck again by the lightning spears of Solaire the Bell Gargoyle had reached its limit and called on it's fellows. "*ROOOAAARRR!*"**

 **"Oh shit here comes the other one," Noobzilla said as MORE THEN ONE Gargoyle took flight from the tower and landed on the roof top six in total. *TICK TICK TICK DING* "Oh come on!"**

 **With a exclamation of rage Noobzilla put back his ultra greatsword and swapped in the burning black knight sword. "AHHHH!" *slash* in one two handed strike Noobzilla beheaded one of the lesser Gargoyles that had their back turned to him. *THWOMP* As the body of the Gargoyle fell its fellows attacked. Both Solaire and Noobzilla were pushed to the limit of their evasive abilities as they dodged and rolled out of the way of as many strikes as they could but the withering attacks were taking their toll.**

 **Then one of the Gargoyles got a lucky hit in sending Noobzilla flying back into the wall of the Parish roof. Solaire approached sword and shield at the ready to defend his companion. "You ok?"**

 **"Yeah," *Estus swig*Estus swig* "Im ok... let's finish this," Standing back up Noobzilla took sock of the situation. Five Gargoyles and two of them on the roof. "Hmm Solaire I got a plan but your not going to like it."**

 **"What is it?" the sun lit knight asked but their conversation was interrupted by the Gargoyles.**

 **"ROOOAAARRR" The Gargoyles all lined up and raised their heads flame bellowing from their mouths as they raised their heads in preparation for a flame attack.**

 **"No time!" Noobzilla yelled as he dropped his sword and grabbed Solaire by the body armor spinning around twice before throwing him up into the air just as the five Gargoyles spewed a wall of fire.**

 **Solaire yelled as he flew through the air and landed hard on the other side of the roof. Picking himself up and recovering from the landing Solaire shook his head and looked back at the five Gargoyles still spewing fire on Noobzilla. Concern for his friend growing in his heart as the fire stopped and the Five Gargoyles expected to see a burned corpse but what they found was Noobzilla still standing knees bent and arms crossed over his face.**

 **"Aaah... that hurt... a lot. He luckly this armor has great fire defense" Noobzilla then unfolded his arms picked up his sword and ran at the Gargoyles jumping high into the air once again. The first Gargoyle remembering the last time swung his Halberd at the airborne Noobzilla only for him to quick select the black knight Ultra-greatsword and this time it had gravity going for it. *Clang!*Snap*Slash***

 **In one move Noobzilla split the Gargoyle's halberd in half as the super heavy blade came down, the arrow shaped tip nearly splitting the Gargoyles torso in half down the right side.**

 **Solaire was again impressed but quickly recovered and focused sending more of his lightning spears at the remaining Gargoyles. With more Lightning spears striking their backs and their leader dead the Remaining Gargoyles were easily finished off. After word Solaire and Noobzilla shared a hand shake before the sunlit warrior returned to his world.**

 **Noobzilla rang the bell and as he was coming back down the tower when he encountered Oswald of Carim who had his arms out like a weirdo. Noobzilla listened to his spiel and bought a Velka's Talisman and the Poison and Bleed bite Rings.**

 **Continuing on his way to the next area that would have been his normal route to the Darkroot garden, Noobzilla finally met with Andre of Astora.**

 ***Clank*Clank*Clank*faint noises of metal striking metal echoed through the old church as Noobzilla descended the stairs to the bonfire. *Clank*Clank*Clank*Clank* After lighting the bonfire Noobzilla continued down the stairs as the sounds of weapon smithing got louder and louder until Noobzilla had at last reached the rather small smithing shop at the bottom of the building.**

 **The well muscled blacksmith stopped his hammering as he felt the presence of someone coming down the stairs. "Well you must be a new arrival. I'm Andra, of Astora. If you require smithing, then just tell me."**

 **"Glad to meet you Andra im Noob of Zilla." Noobzilla had all his current gear and weapons upgraded to +5 with the metric F-ing ton of Titanite he had collected from all the grinding. With the exception of his Burning Black knight armor (which he was wearing) and weapons set as they require Twinkling Titanite which is rare and not something Noobzilla has enough of at the moment if he wanted to upgrade the whole set.**

 **Noobzilla decided to Take the opportunity for some down time and headed to the gated entrench of Sen's fortress meeting with the onion knight** **Siegmeyer of Catarina who was of course sleeping at the closed gate. Noobzilla a woke the oddly armored man and had a friendly chat for half a hour before leaving.**

 **Noobzilla then traveled to the bottom of the Old church and fought the Titanite demon.**

 **As he approached, the stone creature swung it's weapon down at Noobzilla only for it to be blocked by the black knight sword and parried to the side as Noobzilla slipped in close and slashed upwards at the stone creatures right shoulder joint weakening its arm with a few cracks. The Headless stone beast then sweeped its tail around batting Noobzilla away. Recovering he rolled out of the way as the Titanite demon brought it's pole weapons pointed tip down splitting the stone floor. Noobzilla ran around the beast throwing Fire bombs as a distraction as he got around to the back where he switched to the black knight Ultra-greatsword and cut a large gouge into the living stone creatures back cracking its body. The Titanite demon shuddered in pain as Noobzilla raised the oversized sword again and brought in down fully shattering the beast into hundreds of pieces some of which were Titanite slabs, dozens of Titanite chunks and many many Titanite shards which Noobzilla happly collected.**

 **Well it was called the Titanite demon sooo made of Titanite?!**

 **After defeating the Titanite demon Noobzilla made his way to** **Havel the Rock.**

 **The battle with him was a long one as he had stupidly heavy armor and a equally stupid over sized Dragon tooth hammer. The only weapon Noobzilla had that could match Havel's was the black knight Ultra-greatsword and being smart he knew he didn't have any armor that could protect him from a hit from that giant dragons tooth hammer so he just striped down to his bar undergarment's making him far lighter a little faster and giving him room to breath.**

 **Noobzilla approached the heavily armored warrior and the two attacked each other with their oversized weapons. *Clang* the two giant weapons bounced off each other as their willders struggled to recover faster than the other. Noobzilla bent his knees lowering his center of gravity before swinging his sword again and again. Each time the two perfectly countered the other in a shower of sparks but their stamina was waning with each strike. *Clang*clang*clang*clang* The end of the battle was at hand as both Havel and Noobzilla had reached their limits as both raised their weapons for one last strike. The giant one ton Dragons tooth came down smashing through the floorboards as Noobzilla at the last second twisted out of the way and spun around bringing the ultra-greatsword up and then swung down cutting off Havels arms at the elbow joints. Stunned Havel backed up staring at his arm stumps and then turned to Noobzilla who had raised his sword again one final time and brought it down. *Crunch***

 **After the fight Noobzilla to a hour to rest before collecting his spoils and returning to Andre.**

 **After a few days of waiting all the improvements were done. Noobzilla thanked Andra payed the man his souls and continued on his way. His next destination the lower undead burg. Unlocking the locked door with the key he got from the Parish Noobzilla made his way down to the lower area fighting through the annoying skinless dogs and hollows until coming across cries for help.**

 **"Somebody!, please let me out of here! Anybody please help! I'm trapped in here! Hello hello! I've been in here for... for... uh days! OH! by Lord Gwyn's beard I don't want to die here!"**

 **Noobzilla listened to the sad sad cries for help for about a minute before they got old and he unlocked the door. "Oh! thank you thank you. Im saved. I thought I might not ever escape. I am Griggs of Vinheim. A sorcerer of the school. I am much obliged for your assistance. Thanks to you i'm able to resume my travels. But the first place I must go to is Firelink shrine. If you ever want to learn magic I'll be more then willing to teach you and sell some of my wear's, dor a price of course. I must be going now I can't stand another moment in here Oh but I'm being rude. What's your name?"**

 **"Im Noob of Zilla from across the sea."**

 **"Hmm pleased to meet you Noob. Ha it's quite a odd name. But i'm not judging. Any way I must be going now. Thank you again Noob of Zilla."**

 **"I have one question Griggs. If your a sorcerer why didn't you just use magic to, I don't know destroy the door?!."**

 **Meanwhile at Firelink shrine the crestfallen knight was relaxing like he always does when he heard a faint cry coming from the undead burg.**

 **Back with Noobzilla Griggs was on his knees crying like a four year old who's candy had been stolen. "I'm... just going to go now... by."**

 **Noobzilla left the sad scene and continued on his way. Moving through the Lower undead burg was troublesome as the hollow thieves kept coming out of the woodworks. Five would be cut down and ten more would appear and throw knives and fire bombs. Noobzilla had to use two drinks of estus and cut through twenty of them before they stopped coming.**

 **After that Noobzilla stood at the fog door to the damn Capra demon and his dogs. But Noobzilla had a trick up his sleeve... throwing fire bombs over the arch way into the small area the demon and his mutts are in, lots and lots of fire bombs.**

 **After about a hundred fire bombs Noobzilla felt the souls from the boss and his dogs enter him just as the fog gate dissipated revealing a blazing inferno in the small area that has spelled the death of many a player. *Whistling* Happily Noobzilla picked up the key to the depths off the burning corpse of the Capra demon and moved on.**

 **Having used the key Noobzilla entered the depths. The dark and smelly underground counterpart to the Undead burg. Through the shadowed corridors Noobzilla slayed the weak hollows with ease, After leveling up the weaker hollows are no threat what so ever. Not even that Butcher hollow. Noobzilla walked down a set of stairs as the smell of cooking meat and the sound of chopping echoed through the dark halls. As he moved closer the sight of a oversized hollow in a cooks outfit came into view. Noobzilla also noticed the other hollows standing around the area as if guarding the cook. "LEEROOOOY JENNKINSSSS."**

 **Meanwhile in a lower area the Pyromancer named Laurentius of the Great Swamp who was stuffed in a wood barrel waited for his inevitable end. The thought of being eaten alive terrified him, his hands were shaking and he couldn't stop sweating. *Thump* Suddenly there was a foot step in the hallway outside his room,*Thump* then another *Thump* and another *Thump* and another. Laurentius started panicking as he knew it was his end. He didn't want to die, not yet. The door to the room opened and a huge hulking figure entered. Laurentius knew it was the butcher by the smell of dried blood and meat on her clothes. *Thump*Thump*Thump*The figure walked closer lowering the giant butchers knife as it walked closer making a frightening *Scraping noise* that echoed through the dark room as Laurentius closed his eyes.**

 **"HE HE HE. Meat, meat good to eat." said the butcher in a deep voice.**

 **Laurentius shook in the barrel but keeping his pride as a pyromancer he didn't cry like a baby or pled he accepted his fate with grace. The butcher stopped in front of him and just staired. Laurentius opened his eyes for a moment catching sight of the white blood stained apron before closing his eyes again. The Butcher raised the giant knife and held it in both hands before bringing it down. *Chop***

 **In the next moment Laurentius felt the barrel fall away and he was free. Free to fall on his ass as he nearly soiled himself. "Ah uh what?!" The man clearly confused and frightened just stared up at the butcher who started laughing his ass off. "AH! HAHAHA, AH! HAHAHA, AH HAHAHA!. Sorry sorry... *gasp* but I just couldn't help myself ah hahaha. That look on your face was priceless ah,hahaha."**

 **Laurentius sat their as he watched the man laugh his ass off for a few minutes.**

 **After the near death experience Laurentius punched Noobzilla in the face knocking him down. The pyromancers hand was injured a bit from hitting the Burning black knight helmet but it was worth it.**

 **"HEHE sorry man like I said I couldn't help it, it was just too good a opportunity to pass up. And the look on your face hehe,"**

 **Laurentius sighed as on one hand he was free and on the other it was at the cost of a few years of his life. At least that would be the case if he wasn't undead but maybe he would just go hollow a little quicker. "Thanks for saving me... I guess."**

 **Having finally stopped giggling like a schoolgirl Noobzilla turned to Laurentius. "Yeah your welcome... sorry again ha. Anyway your a pyromancer right."**

 **"Yes." Laurentius replied as he crossed his arms still a little salty over his near death experience.**

 **"Well maybe later when were both at firelink shrine you can teach me some of that magic of yours... you know for saving your life and all."**

 **Laurentius sighed again looking down then up again. "Yes sure. I owe you. I would have been supper without you. Even if you were a asshole! about it."**

 **"Ok. Ok I get it you hate me. Let's met up at Firelink shrine later on. I got some business further below so may take a while."**

 **Laurentius uncrossed his arms. "You crazy. There are nastier monsters further below?!"**

 **"I can handle it. I already slew a giant Drake and a bunch of Gargoyles. And I already have a good idea of what's down there."**

 **"*Sigh* Fine it's your funeral. Just don't die I still have to repay you. Anyway, I'm heading back to firelink now... good luck."**

 **"Bye."**

 **Having said their farewells for now the two parted one going up the other going further down.**

 **Fighting his way through the the depth Noobzilla encountered the second butcher, sewer rats that giant sewer rat, slimes and those stupid looking googly eyed Basilisks and more hollows before he finally encountered the red phantom Knight Kirk.**

 **The black spike armored knight attacked Noobzilla only for his armor to take the hit with ease. Noobzilla ended the fight with one leaping strike of his black knight greatsword splitting Kirk in half, shame about the armor. Collecting the damaged armor Noobzilla continued onwards finally finding Domhnall of Zena. The odd merchant had set up shop in the depths right by the locked gate leading to Blight town.**

 **"Aye, siwmae. And good day to you. I'm Domhnall of Zena. Imjust, well, a peddler of sorts. I adore trinkets and oddities, so I trade for them."**

 **Noobzilla restocked on Gold pine resin, arrows and crossbow bolts before making his way further through the sewer arriving at a upper balcony along the cavernous room where the Gaping dragon was. It was here he encountered the Channeler and his pack of sewer rats. After dispatching them Noobzilla moved on through the next areas before arriving at Solaires summon sign.**

 **"Ah once again into the fold my good friend." Solaire stated.**

 **"Yep. But Solaire my buddy this is going to be a hell of a fight so here I picked up this crossbow and I wanted you to have it. Ranged attacks will help in the next fight. And take this gold pine resin too."**

 **"Ah! thank you. Now shall we."**

 **"Yes lets."**

 **Both Noobzilla and Solaire passed through the fog gate entering the lowest level of the massive cavernous room. Four very large broken pillars lay in the middle of the room silhouetted buy light shining in from three large holes in the far wall and ceiling as water flowed between them to the chasm at the far end to where the water flowed. From the darkness came a head resembling a alligator but far larger, and then it rose higher and higher as a massive hulking form came closer crawling on it's two long arms, four legs, flexing it's four stubby wings. The dragon like beast crawled fully out of the chasm before raising up and revealing its gaping mouth like torso filled with countless giant teeth as it let out a hungered roar that shook the room.**

 **Noobzilla quick selected his +5 long sword and gave it the gold pine resin treatment before charging letting Solaire like last time to provide the ranged support. Roaring the gaping dragon slammed it's body down, it's wings shattering the nearby stone pillar like a child's toy as the ground shook. Undaunted Noobzilla charged running to the beasts left side and slashed at the beasts arm as it passed. The gaping dragon shuttered as the lightning surged through it's body and started crawling forwards. Solaire fired off a few bolts and lightning spears before moving out of the way. The gaping dragon crashed into the wall again shaking the room.**

 **"I hope this room doesn't come down on us!" Noobzilla stated as he saw Solaire running along the far wall. Solaire having got far enough away once again fired at the gaping dragons exposed back scorching the dark scales with his lightning attacks. Also seeing his opportunity Noobzilla charged at the stunned beast carefully watching the movements of the swaying tail as he approached and then jumped out of the way as the tail slammed down nearly smashing him. Noobzilla then climbed up the beasts back using both his longsword and broadsword to stab at the gaps between the scales.**

 **As he climbed the beasts back Solaire continued shooting as there was more than enough body to target on the massive beast. The gaping dragon raised itself up again and twisted its torso left grabbing onto the wall and started crawling along it sideways. Noobzilla hung on to his swords stuck into the beasts body but they started to loose grip little by little by all the shacking.**

 **The gaping dragon crawled along the wall to the right side of the chamber right over Solaire before dropping back down with a great crash that shattered the other piller. Solaire had avoided the giant beast falling on him by running across the chamber where he continued shooting. Seeing Solaire safe and avoided becoming a pancake Noobzilla continued to climb up the beasts back bloody stab by bloody stab to the gaping dragons tiny head.**

 **The gaping dragon raised up again as Solaire seeing a opening fired into the gaping maw. The monster spasmed and shook as it felt the hits but a moment later the beast hunched over and spewed forth a flood of acidic bile from its body mouth that flooded the chamber. Solaire ran away just in time nearly being eaten away by the vile acid bile as it melted the stone floor but was quickly washed away by the flowing water.**

 **The gaping dragon raised back up as it took another lightning enhanced crossbow bolt. The beast turned to Solaire continuing to shoot and throw his lightning projectiles and charged at the annoying ant. Just then Noobzilla reached the gaping dragons shoulders and wrapping his legs around the wings as he applied more gold pine resin on both his weapons and vigorously stabbed at the beast.**

 **The gaping dragon roared in pain as its spine surged with lightning. It's clawed hand missed Solaire by a few feet as he dodge rolled away and ran to safety as the giant beast thrashed and rampaged about. Noobzilla again held onto the on the wings for dear life. After a minute the beast tired itself out and dropped in exhaustion. Seeing this as his chance to end the fight Noobzilla got up and ran across the neck of the gaping dragon and jumped stabbing his two blades into the eyes of the small head. *ROOOOOOAAARRRR* *HEAVY THUD***

 **The gaping dragon gave one last roar before dying, falling into a heap. Noobzilla stood up and looked at Solaire. The two warriors waved to each other as Solaire faded returning to his world. After words Noobzilla chopped off the gaping dragons tail and put it in his inventory and after that found the Blighttown key. He then returned to Andra who was very pleased to take the Large ember Noobzilla had picked up in the depths. A week later Andra was done enhancing most of Noobzillas weapons and armor from +5 to +10 along with forging two new weapons. The Dragon King Greataxe made from the Gaping dragons tail. And the Gargoyle Tail Axe made from the Bell Gargoyles tail.**

 **Noobzilla then returned to to firelink shrine but before he went about learning magic from Griggs and Laurentius he walked to the Bonfire and turned to the camera.**

 **"Hello again to all my fans reading my story back in my dimension. Well it's more like Ellen's story really. Anyway just wanted to reply to [Guest reviewer on chapter 16] Yes Ellen will be going to the Mass Effect and Warhammer universes but the Warhammer-verse will be near the end of the story. But the Masseffect-verse could be much sooner. As for the Harry Potter-verse EH? I'm up in the air about it. Mainly because I don't like soft magic systems that don't clearly explain how they work and I'm not a fan of Harry Potter in general. The world is interesting but there's nothing really noteworthy about the spells and magic plus all the magic needs wands to work and WANDS! are LAME! but that's just me. I much prefer the magic from the Final Fantasy series namely FF-12 as Mist is a good explanation about how magic works in universe."**

* * *

 **Chapter 17**

 **Rise of the Spartans part 6**

 **Location,** Proxima Centauri, UNSC invasion fleet

In the dark void of space the new destroyer class Behemoths fired their four oversized forward mounted spine cannons at the UNSC Infinity. The projectile's sped to their targets. The psi-armor reinforced spines lanced through space ever so slightly changing their trajectory as they traveled many hundreds of kilometers a second to their target. Dozens of twenty meter long spins impacted the port side of the Infinity shaking the wholes ship but only doing minimal damage thanks to the fleets new Psi-plating armor. It was developed by Neo-Cortex and given to the fleet at the New Horizon station. A technological counterpart to the Zergs Psi-armor. It use's a network of Khaydarin crystals and emitters placed throughout a ship's superstructure enhancing and reinforcing it and the armor with Psionic energy.

 **Infinity bridge**

Warning klaxons blared as hundreds of Zerg signatures moved across the main monitor coming closer to the Infinity and her half of the fleet now consisting of around three hundred ships. Captain Pesaro held on to his arm rests until the shaking stopped. "Damage report?"

"Minimal damage to port side. Psi-plating is holding," reported a female bridge officer.

"Turn to the enemy formations and charge main Valkof cannon #1" The captain ordered.

"Turning to engaged enemy formations. Charging Valkof #1." Incoming Wyverns and Glaives activating point defense network." "Valkof 1# charge at 20%."

All along the Infinites hull hundreds of plates retracted inward and slid to the side allowing a variety of point defense turrets to extend into firing position and all at once the space on the Infinities portside was saturated by railgun fire and lasers beams blasting the formations of Wyverns, Mutalisks, Guardians, Broodlords, Broodlisk and broodlings and Glaives out of the sky as they fired their own barrage back.

"Valkof charge at 37%." "Behemoth formations are closing."Anti-fighter missiles launching." A barrage of hundreds of missiles launched out of the Infinites missiles pods arching towards their targets. The Zerg shot shot many down destroying 22% of them while trying to maneuver out of the way of the rest but most still hit. As the Missiles hit their targets hundreds of Blossoms of fire, neosteel, blood and gore expanded in the cold vacuum.

"How much longer till the rest of the fleet gets here?" The captain asked as he watched two Stalwart class frigate's to the Infinities starboard get gutted by a focused barrage of Glaives and a swarm of Scourges blasting through the ships lower decks as the Psi-plating was overwhelmed by their numbers.

"Remaining fleet arrival time is 4 minutes," Athena reported after having communicated with the other fleet AIs via quantum coms.

The captain sighed knowing every minute in a battle counted. "I want the fleet in phalanx L formations. Focus main guns on the approaching enemy fleet and keep the point defenses on the smaller ones."

The UNSC fleet surrounding the Infinity reoriented themselves into three 40 degree angle formations of squares that were slightly off center allowing the fleet to fire their main forward mounted weapons while also defending against the smaller Zerg with their point defense guns.

All at once the fleets MAC and Yamato laser cannons fired at the Zerg fleet but as they did four of the oddly shaped new breeds of Behemoths (other than the Destroyer types) moved ahead of the fleet and opened up their bodies like a flower of ten thick oval shaped armored plates that expelled creep that filled in the gaps between the armored petals and hardened into chitin and was reinforced with Psi-armor as the new Zerg breed glowed with psionic energy. The barrage of Mac shells and Yamato beams struck the armor plate's as the rest of the Zerg fleet hide behind them.

Captain Pesaro's eyes widened in mild shock. "What the hell! Well we know that theirs two new types of Behemoths. Focus fire on the shield types," The captain ordered.

"Noting the two new Behemoth breeds Artillery type and Shield type," Athena said.

The Zerg fleet continued firing Glaives at the UNSC fleet but Little by little the Terrans focused barrage smashed through the shield Type Behemoths killing the new Behemoth breeds and hitting the Zerg behind them. Despite the barrage of Mac shells and Yamato beams strucking the remaining Behemoths blasting chunks out of them the Zerg pressed on ward firing back with their own spine cannons and glaives and spawning Scourges.

The UNSCs new formation maximised their point defense allowing them to rip into the Zerg Wyverns and Guardians that got close enough. The defensive formation was based on the roman Phalanx but changed and scaled up for star ship and space combat.

The battle raged on as the small Zerg fleet closed the distance, continuing to fire as they approached. "Valkof at 70%" "Firing Rapier barrage." "Captain should we launch fighters to intercept?"

Captain Pesaro turned to the bridge officer. "No they'll just get in the way of our own point defense fire in this melee."

Hundreds of Rapier missiles impacted the Broodlords and Guardians blasting more of them out of the sky and shortly after the remaining Zerg fighter and bomber groups were wiped out leaving only the Behemoths and the Scourges they spawned who were also dying in droves from the point defense.

"Valkof at 90%"

Captain Pesaro checked the range between the UNSC fleet and the Zerg forces which read 400 kilometers and closing. The long ranged radar started picking up more incoming Zerg from the rear.

"Captain more Zerg have warped in behind us!" Athena warned.

Captain Pesaro thought a moment even as proximity alarms warned of incoming spine and glaives fire from behind. "Have the rear half of the fleet cut their engine's and drift while using their RCS thrusters to rotate 180 degrees, and return fire at our persures."

Athena relayed the orders to the fleet and just a moment later the rear half of the fleet cut their engines and spun around a 180 degrees facing down the new Zerg fleet and opened fire. The point defense lasers blasted Glaives and Scourges into chunks of cooked meat as the anti-ship archer missiles blasted small chunks out of the pursuing Zerg Behemoths destroying sensory organs and bioweapons.

"Valkof fully charged," reported the chief weapons officer.

"Aim at the center of the forward fleet and switch for scatter fire on the Valkof," the captain ordered.

The Infinities left forward Valkof cannon glowed with blue energy as three rings launched out from it's barrel and took positions a few thousand meters away from the ship and each other. Each ring glowed with pure psionic energy as they expanded becoming wider and extending short spikes inward or outward.

"Calculating multiple target trajectories and coordinates. Accounting for target drift and local gravity wells."

Captain Pesaro breathed in and out calming himself as this would be the first live combat fire of the new Ragnarok class Valkof cannon. It was mostly the same as the type used in the battle of Reach over 8 decades ago but the focusing rings allowed it to become far more deadly as the type of shots fired could be chosen like changing out one type of ammo for another.

"Fire!"

The glow of the Vakof grew in intensity as a intense beam of blue and silver energy blasted forth flying through the rings and as it traveled through the third ring the beam defused splitting into dozens of smaller beams. The defused beams blazed through space each shifting position little by little as each found their target. One or two beams impacted each of the Behemoths as their Psi-armor which must have been improved since Reach with stood the attack. For all of two seconds before the beams blasted giant holes through the Zerg bio-ships leaving behind a graveyard of burnt flesh and charred chitin.

 **Alpha Leviathan nerve center**

Both Ellen and Izsha sat slack jawed as they watched the new weapons display of power. It had come as a complete surprise to Ellen that the Tarrens had developed homing beams for the Valkof. She thought it would have taken them a few thousand years till such a technology had been developed but yet here it is fully functional and combat ready.

"Well... this changes things," Ellen mused resting her head back on her palm.

 **"Empress shall we change our tactics to account for this new weapon,"** Zavara asked from her position in the deep underground core of the super hive cluster on Proxima centauri b.

 **"Yes we are. Nakool. I want you to destroy that weapon as soon as you can. It would be a problem if the Terrans used it for a orbital bombardment."**

At the second Zerg fleet drifting in the inner Proxima centauri system Nakool sat upon her throne of chitin in her leviathan's nerve center. She crossed her arms in thought. **"It will be a pleasure my empress. It's been so long since something interesting happened. It will be entertaining challenge to brake the Terrans new toy."**

Back with the Infinity the rest of the fleet had finally charged up their trans light drives and made the comparatively short jump to the fleets flag ship the Infinity. The fleet regrouped into three layers each having many dozens of smaller wedge shaped formations of ships. All throughout the fleet Repair crews got to work repairing any damage suffered as the UNSC fleet readied itself for the next battle.

The fleets Smart AIs and engineers reported that the cause of the fleet being seperated and warping out at different places was caused by the safety systems built into all the Shaw-fujikawa drives black box. The safety system change's the ships exit coordinates if it looks like multiple ships in close proximity will warped out through the same point in slipspace together which would be catastrophic as the ships would crash into each other or even exit slip space at the same time at the same point in space which would be a very bad thing. Like two bullets trying to leave through the same gun barrel bad. And no one even knows what would happen if two slipspace portals opened close enough together to touch, nothing good that's what.

* * *

 **UNSC invasion fleet in route to Proxima Centauri B**

After the first battle the fleet assumed a defensive posture before making its way farther in system. Captain Pesaro and the other high ranking leaders of the fleet gathered in a virtual meeting room using virtual avatars. The virtual world in which they met was a dark void with a green transparent miniature of the Proxima Centauri system in the middle of three simi circle stands that seated hundreds of fleet captains while the only fleet Admiral's Dean Statham and Frederick Alvey with Cliff Pesaro captain of the Infinity stood in the center standing around the 3d image of the Alpha Centauri system.

"Hello everyone." Stated admiral statham as he looked around at the other attendees. "Now that were in system and our fleet has reassembled we can finally continue with the operation. The issue at hand is our next move. Do we directly invade Proxima B or do we do something about the larger Zerg fleet waiting close by?"

The other officers all took a moment to think it over a few speaking between themselves.

"It would be a tactical mistake to leave our rear guard undefended during the invasion." a Captain Nathan stated. "That fleet is far larger than ours and it's going to attack at one point or another. I say we go on the offensive and attack it with everything we have minus the carriers and other ships that are holding our ground forces."

The other Captains and the two admirals took the tactic into consideration as they continued.

"A good point. But what if we exhaust our space forces in the process?" a female captain named Jolene Presley asked.

"Shes right."Captain Pesaro said. We can't give the Zerg the upper hand in space or they'll bombard our ground forces from orbit."

This made the others more thoughtful of their next move.

"What if we split the fleet. One half keeps the main Zerg fleet busy while the second starts the invasion." Aliasse proposed as her virtual avatar stepped through a white doorway that soon faded away.

The military leaders all took a moment to consider the option as one of the younger captains stroked his virtual hair. "It's a good plane miss Aliasse. But such a plan depends on both fleets winning and not dying. What if the forces of one fleet is overwhelmed leaving the back door open for the Zerg to attack the remaining fleet from behind."

Aliasse turned to the captain a man named Donovan Rollins. "I know the risks but I believe that if we defeat the main super hive cluster the Zerg will consider it a loss, end their hostilities and leave the system."

Captain Rollins chuckled at this. "HEHE. You think these monsters will just give up if we brake their largest hive cluster. What proof do you have."

Aliasse knew that this guy was a young pup ready to prove himself in order to rise in the ranks "My experience in fighting the Zerg and their Empress."

This caught Rollins off guard. "Eh what did you say?"

Admirals Dean Statham and Frederick Alvey laughed at this. "HAHAHA. Captain Rollins you must not know this but miss Aliasse here is the Valkyrur which fought against the Swarm Empress herself during the first Zerg war back in the 21st century. She has far more experience fighting Zerg then everyone in the fleet combined."

This caught Rollins off guard a moment as he made a very surprised and embarrassed before regaining his composer. "Ah! uh oh I didn't know you were THAT Aliasse. Forgive me my lady."

'My lady? Suck up' Aliasse thought raising a eye brow. "Its ok let's just get back on topic."

For the next hour the high ranking captains and admirals mulled over the detail's of their strategy to hit the Zerg forces on two fronts while also making contingency plans.

The virtual world faded away and Aliasse detached the VR plug from her cyber implant at the back of her neck. Sitting up from her chair she stretched before walking over to the wall displaying the outside. The wall screen showed the fleet and the two Alpha Centauri stars far behind them in the distance.

"Ellen what are you planning?"

 **"Oh! nothing much hehe."**

Aliasse gave a surprised gasp at the feeling of her frenemy in her head.

 **"What do you want Ellen? Come to chat."**

The moment Aliasse connected to Ellens mind she felt that something was off. Not that Ellen was keeping something from her or planing something but... something just felt off about her mind. Aliasse had felt a smaller degree of this back when she and Ellen met back on Reach decades ago but thought nothing of it at the time. But now it was a much stronger feeling that Ellen's mind had undergone some kind of change. But Aliasse couldn't tell what it was. It was a unnerving feeling.

 **"Yeah it's been a long time since we talked. So... how you been?"** Ellen projected from her Alpha Leviathan.

Aliasse sighed. **"Been ok. Just, you know building up a force capable of kicking your ass."**

 **"Hehehe. Nice. At least you've been keeping busy. It' been boring lately. There's only so much time you can kill with thousands of books, movie's and video games.*sigh* and training, lots and lots of training. Oh well. Have you been keeping in shape? have a boyfriend?"**

 **"Err... uh no and no. Eh! I mean yes to the keeping in shape part. No I don't have a boyfriend."**

 **"*Sigh* Thats bad when you haven't had a guy to lean on for a few hundred year's... We both suck at dating don't we."** Ellen said dead pan.

Aliasse sighed again thinking of Ellen's words. **"Boyfriend huh?!"**

 **"Are you ok? Aliasse"** Ellen asked.

Aliasse walked over to her bed and layed down resting her arms on her belly and for head. **"Ellen..."**

 **"Yes?"**

 **"Can't we just get along."**

 **"Huh?"**

 **"I mean this whole you using the Zerg to toughen up the Terrans for the wars to come. Is it really necessary at this point? Can't we just work together?"**

Laying upon her own bed of warm creep Ellen thought about her fellow Valkyrur,s words.

 **"This is the last. After your fleet takes Alpha Centauri I won't have anymore reason for attacking or fighting the Terrans."**

 **"You know that's not what I mean."**

 **"Yeah well deal with it. I got this major project to complete once I head back to my Swarm capital."**

Aliasse raised a eye brow. **"What? you've built a capital for the Zerg swarm."**

 **"Yeah. Been expanding it over the centuries to. Now it's a massive city sized structure with... unique abilities. Don't worry I wont use it here."**

 **"What does it do?"**

 **"Ha! can't tell you. I'll just say that it's... planning for the future."**

Aliasse sighed at the vague wording as she felt a familiar presence approaching.

*Knock* Knock* Aliasse reflexively sat up looking at her rooms door. The door changed like a display screen showing the person on the other side. It was Selvaria. "Yes what is it."

Selvaria's voice spoke through the intercom "Miss Aliasse you told me to call for you when the last touches to G-Zero were completed so you can give your inspection."

Aliasse stood up. "I'll be there in a bit give me a few minutes to change."

"Ok," Selvaria replied walking off screen.

Aliasse sighed as she heard Ellen in her head again. **"Hmm whos that?"** Ellen asked sounding intrigued. **"They must have some psionic power for me to sense them close to you through our connection?"**

 **"No one you need to concern yourself about. Just one of the students from the Psi-Academy on Reach that I've taken under my wing."**

Aliasse wasn't lying... for the most part.

 **"Oh really. Well they feel powerful. Just don't go loosing them in the battle to come."**

Aliasse relaxed a bit feeling Ellen leave her mind. "Mmm I wonder if things will turn out for the better... or worse. *sigh* Only time will tell."

Aliasse put one her NeoCortex uniform consisting of a white shirt and pants that were colored blue on their inner sides and black along their outer sides she then put on a blue jacket with white lines down it's sleeves with the stylized NC of the NeoCortex logo on the back.

Aliasse then left her room finding Selvaria waiting for her at the corner down the hall. The two walked to the nearest maglev tram which took them to the rear reserved hanger where Selvaria,s G-Zero was. The giant robot standing in the back of the hanger now had a pair of triangle shaped com-unit horns on the side's of it's head pointing backwards at a 40 degree angle. A upside down green triangle with a flat tip holding sensor units was on the forehead with two smaller white sensor horns arranged in a wide v shape. G-zero also now had blue armor plates covering it's shoulders, thighs, for arms and for legs with some small red plating her and there around the midsection and joints.

Along the hanger walls were giant weapons for G-Zero one being a folding E-carbon sword and shield reinforced with psi-plating tech like G-Zero it' self. There was also a heavy underslung beam cannon and Mac cannon of equal size. A shield made from the same armor as the Infinity but nearly double the thickness of G-Zeros armor. There was also a gatling gun pod which was a modified ARC-1000 the same type of weapon as a Goliath mech has but modified for use as a hand held weapon that can also attach to the under for arm. G-Zero also had twin gatling pods on both upper sides of its head that used the same tech as the ARC- railgun tech.

"So you got the psi-plating on it I see," Aliasse said as she and Selvaria made their way across the catwalk walking closer to G-Zero.

"G-Zero is mostly completed, including the variable booster and weapon packs," Selvaria said as she looked down to the hanger floor where there were a large set of boosters of differing sizes. A larger one that looks like it fits onto G-Zero's upper back and two others that look like they fit onto the outer knees and two long wide oval shaped boosters that are connected together by a middle part that looks like it attaches onto G-Zeros lower back. "With these booster units G-Zero will be the fastest thing on the ground and will have limited flight. And once we install the anti-gravity drive G-Zero will be able to exit a planet's gravity on its own."

Aliasse looked over the hanger at all of G-Zeros weapons and booster units. "Yeah but you could buy a few Vanguard cruisers for the same amount as what we put into developing G-Zero and all its weapons and gear."

Selvaria turned to Aliasse with a look of understanding. "Yeah but this MS has capabilities no other Military tank or jet has. And it will be very useful when the shit hits the fan later during the larger conflicts to come."

Aliasse got the feeling the G-Zero will be used in the coming battles for the planet. No doubt Ellen has something in the works to. Aliasse couldn't believe that Ellen and her Zerg would Just have two new types of Behemoths.

Selvaria caught the eyes of her two friends Hibiki and Justin who were tinkering with the main upper booster unit on the hanger floor.

"Hay Selvi come down here we want to talk to ya about this booster," Hibiki yelled up to Selvaria as she waved.

"We'll be down in a minute," Selvaria replied as she and Aliasse walked over to the near by elevator to the lower hanger level.

* * *

 **Nakools Leviathan**

As the Terran fleet moved closer to Proxima B Nakool kept a eye on them with Overseers observing from extreme range. Thay had split their forces into three fleet groups the leading edges of each one a hundred kilometers apart with all of the carrier type ships in the center of their formations. The largest of them named the Infinity (read the name on it's hull) was in the center of the forward most fleets formation. Other new model ships that were shaped like Starcraft battlecruisers but looked more advanced flanked the Infinity in a close weg formation as they flew closer to Proxima Centauri B and the super hive cluster.

"Hmm, a predictably smart move splitting their fleet up so they can't be so easily swarmed and destroyed in one big attack," Nakool mused as her two highest ranked subordinate Brood queens Inkarra and Niadra watched the bioscreen with her.

"Master shall we attack them while their fleet is split up?" Inkarra asked.

"No their going to make a micro warp jump soon."

As if on cue the Tarren fleets all warped to two different places. One over Proxima Centauri B and the second group appeared not forty thousand kilometers away from Nakools fleet.

"Hmp see," Nakool said as she stood up and sent a telepathic command to her fleet sending half of her fleet at the Terrans while having the other half consisting of all her Behemoths, Leviathans split into two more smaller fleets each flanking the Tarrens.

"Now can the Tarrens survive or will they fall?" Nakool asked her self.

"Master can I lead the first wave?" Niadra asked.

"Oh I thought you didn't like space warfare?" Nakool said knowing Niadra was a specialized in ground combat and had little time in space warfare training.

"I don't. But I need more combat experience in such. It is a weakness I need to correct. And given our greater numbers it should give the Terrans a good challenge would it not."

Nakool felt concerned this as she taped the tip of her chin with her clawed finger. "Very well you may lead the first attack. You should hurry up though it seems the Terrans have started long range bombardment."

"Thank you master Nakool," Niadra replied bowing.

Niadra then sat down on the creep floor legs crossed as she focused on the thousands strong force commanded by Nakool who gave up control to Niadra who then made note of all the breeds and their abilities. Niadra then had her force split into ten waves, some flying higher than the Terrans and others lower. This formation would make use of the 3d nature of open space and would allow up to three waves to attack at once. One above, one below and one in front.

"Now go and destroy," Niadra thought as she sent her forces to their targets.

 **With the Terran fleet**

Admiral Statham looked to the main monitor as the Zerg fleet drew closer and not wanting to let the enemy have the first move he ordered his fleet to fire Hellfire drone shuttles that act as carriers for the Asura and Shiva-class fusion missiles. Each of which was a small disposable shuttle that could carry ten Asuras and five Shiva's or any combination of the two types of missiles and could also instantly be deployed to the target via micro slipspace jump allowing it to bypass enemy point defense for the most part.

The admiral watched as two hundred of the small Hellfire automated drone shuttles launched. A few seconds after each one made a micro warp jumping straight into the middle of the approaching Zerg waves that were already being hit with barrages of Yamato beams, Mac shells and missile fire.

After the Hellfire drones launched the admiral waited and waited for the sensors to receive the date that would tell him if the preemptive attack succeeded or not.

Despite the heavy fire they were taking Wyverns, Guardians, Mutalisk, and Scourges surged forward through space and past the bodies of their dead all eager to reach their targets and rend them apart as any Zerg would. Moments later hundreds of slipspace gates opened among the Zerg forces. Hundreds of the small Hellfire shuttles appeared from warp gates and they wasted no time in launching their payloads. The Asura cluster missile's launched and then split into hundreds of smaller micro missiles that spread out hundreds of the micro warheads that single handedly wiped out large swaths of Zerg fleet in nuclear fire.

Moments after the Asura cluster missile's were spent the second missile type the Shiva nukes detonated as the impacted the larger Zerg creating dozens of small suns many times larger the the smaller Asura counterparts decimating many clustered formations of Zerg especially the Broodlords and their kind. Each fusion blast lasting for a few brief seconds and unlike the far less advanced nuclear bombs in the 21st century could sustain themselves thanks to the advancements in fusion reactor tech. Modern nukes are more like weaponised fusion reactors rather than bombs.

After a brief pause the admiral and his bridge crew saw thousands of fireballs ignited amongst the dark of space and soon after the screens changed, their date now showing that 50% of the first three waves have been wipe out decimating the overwhelming numbers of Zerg. But still the odds wearnet in their favor as they were still outnumbered 40 to 1.

 **With Niadra**

"Grrr these humans are clever," Niadra growled as she reformed her forces ranks and continued her attack but now making her last two wave's reform into one massive attack wave.

 **Back with the Admiral Statham**

Admiral he saw that the enemy fleet had reformed, continuing their attack. So he decided to change tactics.

"Second Fleet switch to beta formation," The admiral ordered.

The admirals AI relayed the orders and shortly after the fleet change their formation to a triple V formation with one V formation stacked above the other with two kilometers between each ship. The Admiral then gave the order to open fire with a full missile barrage. Moment's later hundreds of thousands of missiles launched at the in coming Zerg wave.

After a few minutes of traveling the wall of missiles flew passed tens of thousands of their glaive counter parts as the organic and inorganic guided weapons went their different ways. Minutes later a line of blossoming explosions moved across space as the Missiles hit their targets. The UNSC fleet fired their point defense guns shooting down half of the glaives before they could get close but many still hit lightly damaging dozens of ships and crippling the main anti-ship weapons of many others requiring repairs.

The admiral felt relieved that the damage was so light but then watched the main screen show the projected course of the other in coming waves and realised that it was both a delaying tactic and allowed the Waves of Zerg to surround his fleet from above and below. Each wave wasn't that much trouble but if they start hitting his fleet two or three at a time from multiple directions the fleet could be overwhelmed quickly!. Putting his hand on his chin the Admiral thought on the best course of action, coming up with a simple yet effective move that would also give his fleet a bit of time to make repairs.

Running away!

 **With Nakool and her subordinate Brood queens**

As the three Brood queens watched the fourth and fifth waves consisting of thousands of swarming Broodlings and Broodlisk lead by hundreds Broodlords surged forth as a thick barrage of point defense fire hit them. Lasers large and small burned at the cloud of claws and chitin as solid slugs ripped holes through the cloud of Zerg as they fired back.

Glaives in their hundreds of thousands flew at the UNSC ships but many were destroyed by the thick point defense's but many others hit their targets. Destroying turrets blasting, holes in psi-plating after many hit to the same spot over and over again and sometimes getting a luckley hit into the engines of some ships reducing their maneuverability and speed.

Despite the heavy point defense barrage the Terrans barely made a dent in the Zergs numbers and just when they were about to envelop the Terrans fleet completely they suddenly warped away.

"What?! they fled. Such cowered's." Niadra turned to Nakool. "What shall I do now Master?"

Nakool just shrugged. "Your in command Niadra. You figure it out." Nakool felt that the battle would help improve Niadra's skills concerning large scale space battles seeing as it was her weak point.

Niadra a little overwhelmed by her command of space forces in real combat felt at a loss but she started thinking. "The Terrans have to be somewhere in system. But where?"

Niadra then ordered all the Overseers she commanded and had keep back until now to scatter throughout the solar system.

(At this point Overseers can make short ranged warp jumps now BTW)

After a hour of searching the Terran fleet was finally found at the Oort cloud at the far edge of the system.

Niadra ordered her fleet to warp to the new location using the Leviathans and Behemoths new Maw of the Swarm ability. The Leviathans and Behemoths closed their giant armored fins together, their tips nearly touching together as psionic energy collected in and between them gathering into a swirling vortex. Moments later a spiral warp gate formed and opened between their fins. This ability was based on the [Maw of the swarm] structure which Behemoths and Leviathans could copy since they could open warp gates themselves with some augmentations to their biology and psionic abilities.

These gateways were meant to send smaller zerg space forces from one place to another quickly even from one solar system to another without needing them to get back in to the Leviathan or Behemoth. Although the tactic did have a few drawbacks. Such as needing time to open the gate and leaving the Behemoths and Leviathans unable to warp out from danger themselves when doing so.

 **With Admiral Statham**

Dean Statham sipped at his coffee as one of his chairs screens showed a full report of the repairs completed so far. His hit and run attack strategy had only begun and he had no delusions that the Zerg would soon find them.

"Sir Zerg Overseers spotted at extreme range bearing starbored 4 O-clock high," a male bridge officer reported.

The admiral gave a sigh as his time had run out. "Alert the fleet to stop all repairs and come to battlestations."

Almost as soon at he said that ten warp gates opened up ten kilometers above the fleet but what came from them was not Leviathans or Behemoths but long tendril swarms of Starfish, Wyverns, Mutalisks, Guardians, and Scourges.

Flashes of countless laser beams, projectile's and missiles fired from point defense guns filling the space between the UNSC fleet and the ten portals. The Starfish having already opened their armored plates charged and activated their Psi-armor blocking most of the the shots with ease but the overwhelming barraged of focused fire quickly destroyed many of them but not before ten more portals opened below the Terran fleet this time it was Broodlords and their smaller versions swarming through while firing their spines and glaives. The two way flank attack forced Admiral Statem to order his fleet to full combat speed to get out of the deadly two way attack.

The two sides continued to attack each other until the UNSC fleet was a good thousand kilometers from the twenty warp portals which quickly closed afterward but shortly after closing twenty more portals opened at the same location this time it was the Leviathans and Behemoths.

 **With Niadra Nakool and Inkarra.**

"Hehehe. Run all you like Terrans but I'll find you wherever you run to," Niadra mused as she reformed the swarm fleet into groups of three V shaped waves each stacked one above the other each spaced twenty kilometer apart.

As the Brood queen did this Nakool and Inkarra watched from their chitan thrones.

"Hmm. Not bad but Niadra should have used Abyss-rays to sneak attack the Terrans causing panic and a distraction in their ranks before she sent in her forces," Inkarra mused to her master Nakool who just nodded and continued to watch.

* * *

 **Proxima Centauri B.**

The Zerg's planetary defense fleet waited for the Terrans to arrive as they drifted in their loose fleet formation over the planet. Groups of Wyverns and Scourges raced around the fleet zipping passed and between Behemoths and Leviathans as they made their patrols. Overseers maintained a constant vigil in the Swarms fleet as they patrolled.

Then taking the Zerg defenders by surprise many hundreds of slipspace gates opened in two groups. One in the atmosphere at high altitude while the other was high above in orbit with the Zerg defense fleet between them.

All of the slip space gates ushered forth an equal number of UNSC ships. The fleet above directly engaged the orbital defenders below them launching every fighter and bomber and firing everything they had starting with Hellfire drone shuttles. The element of surprise allowed the UNSC to destroy half of the Zerg defenders in just a few short minutes as the Hellfire drone shuttles carrying Asura cluster missiles launched their payload in all directions vaporizing half the orbital defenders all at once in a massive display of power that blossomed like a field of flowers of fire and death but the remaining defenders fought back.

After that the Terran Fleet fired every Missile, Laser, and Mac turrets on every ship as they fired thousands upon thousands of shots blasted away at the Zerg fleet little by little.

The second fleet group in atmosphere also launched their own attacks at both the Zerg defenders on the surface to clear a landing site and to help the first half of the fleet in orbit. The Zerg orbital defenders found themselves being fired at from above and below but quickly recomposed themselves and fired back in time for hundreds of longswords and Broadswords and drone fighters to flank them from front and back catching them in a four way crossfire that greatly reduced their numbers even more but the UNSC started taking casualties as well as the battle continued. Ships drifted lifelessly, Fighters exploded, as the Terran fleet took casualties.

The UNSC fleet in atmosphere launched every weapon they had in a continue's barrage above and below launching Asura and Shiva missiles along with thousands of others. Mac and Yamato beams blasted hive cluster's on the surface while point defense turrets and archer missiles fired at the Zerg high above them to aide the other half of their fleet. The focused attacks quickly wiped out hundreds of Hive clusters in all directions for a few hundred kilometers. Three of which were directly below the UNSC fleet which would become the first landing zone and base site for the Spartans and Marines who were all getting ready on their carriers loading ammo and checking their weapons before getting into drop pods.

 **Super hive cluster core room.**

Zavara sat on her chitin's throne with her hand supporting her head head, her dark Obsidian carapace armor glistening jet black and simering silver in the faint bioluminescent light as she watched the battle for the planet unfold on her bio screen.

"So the Hum... Terrans have opted for the risky quick strike over a slow push." The brood queen mused as she ordered ALL! of the ground based Glaive and Heavy spine crawlers to fire on the Terran fleet group in atmosphere.

On the ground thousands of the Glaive and Heavy spine crawlers that were in between the hive clusters currently being bombarded, un-burrowed and attacked.

The Glaive and spider like Heavy spine crawlers fired tens of thousands of their living missiles and Heavy psi-armor enhanced ten meter long spines upwards. The Terran fleet expecting such a attack intercepted the ground fire with their point defense guns but most still got through and started damaging and downing ships one after the other forcing them to make a short micro-warp before they suffered too much damage or crashed into the planets surface from taking damage to their gravity control units.

 **With the Infinity and her fleet, extreme low orbit.**

Defensive fire from the fleet blast's countless Glaives out of the air as the space between the surface and the UNSC fleet becomes saturated with weapons fire but there was just so many Glaives that it was impossible to stop them all. Shaking and rocking from the many impacts the Infinity and her fleet suffer through the barrage as the she and Valhalla class battlecruisers flanking her all open their lower hangers up and deploy as many orbital transports as possible while the fleet fire's Asura and Shiva missile's at a landing site.

 **Infinity Bridge.**

"Hows the landing sites. "Captain Pesaro asked a he saw five flash's on his screens inducating fusion detonations on the planets surface.

"Landing site Alpha is cleared."

"Landing site Bete is clear."

"Landing site Gamma... Not clear. Confirmed 20% survival of Zerg at targeted landing site."

The bridge crew reported.

Captain Pesaro *sighed*. "Launch another Asura missle to clear them out."

A moment later the missile was airborne moving at supersonic speed to the Gamma landing sight as heavy anti-air fire blazed all around the lone missile. The UNSC fleet shot down countless Glaives and Mutalisk as they filled the sky.

Upon reaching the desired range the Asura missile dropped its side paneling and fired a hundred smaller missiles that quickly changed their flight path arcing forwards and down. The barrage of micro missiles created contrails in the air as Spine crawlers fire at them and started hitting them from below.

Detecting the threat the formation of micro missiles started bobbing and weaving around as one single cohesive group like a flock of birds as they evaded the incoming anti-air fire. 25% of the missiles were still shot down before they could hit their target points penetrating 50 meters underground before detonating. The detonations of so many nukes underground created a wave of fusion blasts that kicked dirt and debri upwards creating a forest of small mushroom clouds that rose up from the surface.

No Zerg burrowed or not could survive that for a second time.

* * *

 **Infinity bridge**

"Is gamma cleared now?" Captain Pesaro asked as the bridge was abuzz with activity. Orders being shouted and reports received in rapid succession.

"Rechecking... Gamma in now clear. No Zerg life signs detected."

"Launch the landing operation. And target those damn Zerg anti air crawlers." the Captain ordered.

In the Infinites lower hangers hundreds of drop pods and a few experimental buildings launched as the ship shook from in coming fire. The drop pods launched through tube's to the open air outside. While the experimental buildings activated their anti-gravity units and vernier engines allowing them to hover off the hanger deck and fly out quickly descending with the rest of the landing forces to the surface.

On the horizon the setting sun glowed a orange gold shining it's waning light on the drop pods of the landing forces large and small as they filled the air falling through the upper atmosphere to the three landing sights below. As the landing forces raced downwards a barrage of laser, Mac and missile fire blazed past them directed at the Zerg Glaive and Heavy spine crawlers below which also directed a small portion of their fire at the landing forces destroying some but most escaped death and landed safely.

But one Glaive glanced off a Drop pod sending it off course.

On the rocky creep covered surface five kilometers outside landing sight Gamma a Hydralisk bobbed its five heads around as it sighted in on a drop pode high above it rapidly approaching. All five heads then fired a spine barrage right below the falling pod just before it impacted the ground. The Hydralisk gave a satisfied low growl as it and five Zerglings marched off to the pods landing site. High above them the rest of the landing forces continued to rain down at the Gamma landing sight but the Hydralisk was unconcerned with them at the moment but more fore the one that had landed close by.

For a minute the six Zerg weaved through a maze of rocks covered in creep before reaching the pods landing sight. It sat in a small clearing about sixty meters wide. One side had a dozen spines sticking out of it with two canisters beside the pod expelling a white gas that was starting to cover the dropod in a white fog that slowly expanded and made a terrible smell but the Zerg ignored it. As the Hydralisk looked at the pod seeing that the door was open the five Zerglings spread out around the small clearing sniffing at the air which was only possible thanks to the planetary Terraforming the Zerg had done over the prior twenty years.

*Crumble* Hearing the noise the Hydralisk shifted it's five heads to the far right as three of the Zerglings ran over to the spot where the noise came from and sniffed the air again but found nothing but the bitter smell that permeated the area. At that point a Roach showed up reinforcing the first Hydralisk and Zerglings. *BOOM*

The three Zerglings that went to investigate the noise were blown up by a grenade that had been buried and was set to proximity detonate. Instantly the remaining Zerg went into a alert posture as they scanned the area but still found nothing. "Over here!." the Hydralisk spun it's heads around and shot off a dozen spines at the voice only to find a small black device packed into a crevice in the rocks.

*Slice* the Hydralisks roared as two of its heads were cut off. Something had ran past it at brake neck speed only to disappear again into the now much larger cloud of smoke still emanating from the two canisters. Now angry and on alert the Hydralisks, Roach and two remaining Zerglings started moving more cautiously but the white gas cloud continued to grow and before to long covered the area completely obscuring the highly evolved eyes and senses of the Zerg.

It wasn't normal gas.

A armored hand pulled the pin of a grenade and chucked it. The grenade landed below the Roach and detonated, *BOOM* blasting the living tank onto it's back like a turtle. The Roach's legs flailed wildly as it rocked side to side trying in vain to right itself. *Slice*Bang*Bang* The Hydralisk lost the rest of it's secondary heads as the two remaining Zerglings had their brains blown out by armor piercing explosive rounds to their eye sockets. The sneak attack through the fog made the Hydralisk even more angry at this point as it started shooting wildly into the white fog with it's main spine guns while holding its bladed arms up in a defensive posture.

Then the Hydralisk heard a noise come from behind and it quickly turned around only for a giant glowing blade to be impaled into its upper torso right into its true brain. Slicing through it's armor with ease.

Harriette Ness pulled her Glowing Psi-blade out of the Hydralisk and barely dodged a acid spew from the Roach that while on it's back was still aimed at her direction.

In a soundless leap she jumped onto the Roach's exposed belly and impaled it piercing the acid glands in it's underbelly letting its own acid eat away at its insides but knowing that alone wouldn't kill it she took out another of her Grenades pulled the pine and plunged it into the Roach's belly before running away.

*Bzzz* [Hey Harriette. You ok] Zula called out in a concerned tone on the Spartans helmet radio.

"Yeah i'm Ok." *BOOOM* The Spartan glanced back at the now hollowed out Roach corpse, bloody gore everywhere. "I just landed off course by a few miles. Where are you guy's." Harriette asked as she looked up to the sky as the UNSC fleet ascended upwards after deploying all of the landing forces. They now fully engaged the remaining Zerg fleet in orbit to secure the airspace over the planet.

[The rest of us are at landing site Gamma. Five klicks north-east from your current position. Can you make it to us on own?]

"Yeah. Oh and I just took out a Roach, a Hydralisk and five Zerglings. The sense jammer gas works like a charm."

There was silence on the Radio for a moment. [Damn girl I guess your the first Spartan to get real Zerg kills then. Everything over here is extra crispy. Congratulations. Now beat some feet and get over here before Reginald yells at both of us.]

"Hehe roger that Zula. I'm on my way."

Harriette broke into a ten kilometer a hour sprint across the uneven terrain as she made her way to landing site Gamma. In the expansive valley below a cluster of structures started to grow and multiply as the Terran presence at landing site Gamma grew stronger with each passing hour.

 **Chapter End.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 17**

 **Spartans Rising part 6**

High in the atmosphere the sky rumbled as explosions and unearthly shrieks from the battle high above echoed. While the armored form of Harriette Ness ran at top speed through the open plain far below. Kicking up clods of dirt and Creep with every tremendously strong step as she made her way to the Gamma landing site and the third Terran base of operations now on the surface.

Harriette glanced to her left as her suits motion sensors picked up something. Just as she seen did a barrage of spines shot at her pinging of her Psi-plating reinforced Mjolnir armor. Psi-plating was originally developed for the Mjolnir armor but was quickly repurposed for the UNSC fleet. Their were thoughts of enhancing all ground vehicles and infantry armor with it but this proved prohibitively expensive at the time and it was decided that it was only practical and cost effective for the Spartans and the Fleet ships use.

"Agh dammit more Zerg." Harriette spun around droping pron on her armored belly as she detached her Arc-920 rifle from its molecular adhering clamp on her back.

With every pull of the trigger she sent hyper velocity shots back at her attackers blasting the main heads of the Hydralisk off with every pull of the trigger. Their blood gushing into the air as their heads were exploded like a melon by the hyper velocity armor-piercing explosive rounds.

"Ah that the last of them?" Harriette asked no one as she turned around to the expanding Terran base behind her. A few buildings and a dozen base defense turrets on a tracked drone vehicle lower half were already up from what she could see from a few miles away. The lone Spartan continued on her way regaining her top speed of 25 kilometers a hour quickly closing the distance to her allies but then something unexpected happened.

 **"**FUCKING HELL!**"** The psionic yell slammed into every mind in the solar system be they Terran or Zerg causing temporary but splitting headache.

The sudden intense pain caused Harriette to fall tucking in her arms and legs as she rolled holding her head from the giant migraine she just got.

"Aaah UGH! what... what the hell?! OW! that hurts."

Slowly she got back on he feet and made he way to the base now holding her head from the ongoing headache while not as bad as the first time it still was annoying and distracting.

"Was this some kind of Zerg mental attack OW!"

"Harriette! over here."

Hearing the voice of her friend and teammate Zula Thomas Harriette looked up to see her Spartan team and a large group of those simulant Zerglings and Hydralisks running at her while shouting.

"Behind you!"

Harriette glanced back while running seeing a Nydus worm erupt out of the ground along with a pair of Ultralisks.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT," Harriette exclaimed as she picked up the pace to rejoin her fellow Terrans.

Spines large and small started shooting from behind the Spartan running for her life as the Base defense turrets started shooting rapid fire barrage's of hyper velocity gin fire and missiles at the Nydus worms. The command given by the base commander, Aliasse.

 **Command center no#1**

The command center was shaped as a full circle of open space with a two half rings of stations for personnel and a center seating chair more to the back for the Silver haired commander.

"Ow! what the hell Ellen?" Aliasse stated as she held her head along with most of her command staff. She had meant to ask Ellen what the psionic yell was about but the Swarm Empress left the star system shortly after the incident. Just then Selvaria brought Aliasse some water and a pill of headache medicine.

"Here miss Aliasse," Selvaria said as her commander took the two pills and cup water.

Swallowing Aliasse then sighed. "Thanks."

Selvaria passed the headache medicine around the room as Aliasse got back to her job one which she was very reluctant to take up again. But after thinking about it she decided that her experience in fighting Zerg in the past made her the best choice for one of the commanders of the landing forces.

Aliasse looked at her main screen which showed a over head view of her base which was a simulation of the real thing. Created from sensory date taken from the base sensors and hundreds of Firefly drones which were the simulant machine versions of the Zerg Locust.

On screen the lone Spartan that had been knocked off course and landed miles away had finally reached base and her team when a Nydus worm erupted out of the ground just outside the base along with a pair of ultralisks that must have burrowed to the base alongside it. There were four more groupings of Nydus worms and Ultralisks around the base and all the Marine and Spartan forces were handling it as best as they could using heavy weapons on their giant targets.

On screen hundreds of missiles raced out of their infantry and turret mounted launchers. Impacting and exploding along the Ultralisks and Nydus worms giant forms as the latter opened and regurgitated a flood of Zerglings. A hail of gunfire from the Spartans and Marines mowed down many of the attacking Zerglings but still they came like a tide of death they were.

Aliasse looked at the situation with a degree of detachment and acted, using the cursor on her screen to select different groups of Simulant Zerg and Goliath's and taped on the locations she wanted to send them. All of the forces she selected gave order acknowledgment signals as the started moving out. Next dhe reposistiond the base defense turrets to better contain the tide of incoming Zerglings while ordering the production of more from inside the Command centers own production factory which was limited in what it could manufacture.

Before to long the metallic clanking of metal Zerglings and Hydralisk was heard as the main groups of them on base moved out from the center landing area. Quickly arriving at the target locations they started attacking their organic originals. Simulant Zerg and Living Zerg clashed as metal met chitin. Zerglings metal and not attacked one another in a flurry of fangs and claws. Hydralisks shot back at their Neo steel counterparts and slashed and ripped at each other with their praying mantis like triple clawed arms whenever they met up close. The ARC guns of the Simulant Hydralisk had more fire power but the Swarm Hydralisk had a higher rate of fire and could shoot in multiple directions at once as a criss cross barrage of projectiles filled the area. The fighting got more intense as the Goliths arrived shooting their twin chest mounted machine guns while aiming their ARC-cannons at the Ultralisk.

With a thunderous report the rail cannons (The same size a the scorpion tank) shot at their multi-story targets blasting large chunks off the Ultralisks chest armor but didn't penetrate all the way through. Angered and seeing threats equal to them the Ultralisks roared aiming their four spine cannons at the Goliaths and returned fire sending a four shot heavy barrage's at the metal mechs. Just then dozens Marines in Cyclops Exo-armor reached the battlefield and started firing at the Nydus worms with their heavy cannons and rocket launchers. Dozens more explosions rocked the giant worms and after a another minute of concentrated fire they finally died falling like a massive tree, shacking the area as it came down, ending the flood of Zerg reinforcements.

By then the Goliaths started taking heavy damage as the Ultralisks got in melee range. One Ultralisk cleaved a arm cannon off in one swing, forcing the Infantry to retreat or be crushed underfoot of the giant combatant's. Reeling back from losing a arm the pilot of the Goliath shifted the mechs weight around while aiming his remaining rail cannon at the Ultralisk at point blank range. Blasting all the way through its upper torso however this only stunned the beast as it's body already started regrowing the hole. But it buyed time for the Spartans to surround the Oversized Zerg and start climbing it, chopping holes in it's armor with their psi-blades knives and swords while planting explosives in the cut out chunks.

The giant beast was roused by the small beings climbing on it and stood back up giving one last roar before a dozen places along its body exploded from the inside out covering the damaged Goliath and the surrounding Spartans with gore and entrails as the bloody Ultralisk fell dead with most of its skeleton showing.

 **Gamma landing area Command center**

Aliasse let out a sigh of relief as the Nydus worms and other Zerg forces were eliminated bit by bit. Half the defense turrets were destroyed in the fighting and their were still a few hundred Zerg loose in the landing area and base but the battle was now turning. Aliasse zoomed out from the base seeing all remaining Zerg as red dots and all Terran forces as green dots and all structures as blue squares. The Spartans and Marines with the Cyclops exosuits and armored vehicles had pushed the Zerg back and were in the process of eliminating the remaining Zerg but Aliasse knew that the Zerg will be back and in greater numbers next time.

"Lets start building up the base before the Zerg attack again."

With that order all the command staff got to work giving out orders as they deployed Simulant Drones to mine the local area of mineral's even if that was the local creep its' selfe. Dr Hadaway had developed a nano scale recycling process to convert the organic minerals in Creep into usable resources for the UNSC. This process also makes the process of mining for local resources all the more viable and cost effective and as everyone know the military likes it when somethings cheap and efficient.

The Infinity with it's fleet now in orbit where still finishing off the Zerg defense fleet but were still able to send down hundreds of D82-EST Darters to reinforce the ground side bases with more resources. These orbital drop ships could rapidly deploy cargo or troops to the surface faster than any other craft and brought the prefabricated building materials for the new base. But that wasn't the only means that the Terran landing sites could build with as hundreds of new simulant Drones started mining the area for anything that was useful.

The restless Metal Drones ripped up large patches of Creep and placed them into the gathering chambers at the base of the Command center. From there they were processed by a nano-moleuler refining system that broke them down to the level of molecules and atoms allowing them to be recycled into useful building materials. From there the Command centers internal 3d fabrication system took the materials and fabricated new parts for anything the base needed. All of which was built by the army of simulant Drones and SCV's the later of which were a type of exosuit designed for construction not combat.

Before too long a new Fusion Reactor was up and running replacing the first one that was destroyed in the last battle. More Simulant Drones were built in the Command center and Aliasse sent them off scavenging the now silent battlefield for anything that could be recycled or reused as the Terran dead were taken to the makeshift morgue in a Barracks. The bodies of Zerg and Simulant zerg were taken to the Command center to be broken down and recycled.

Before to long a second Reactor was up and running allowing the base to be fully powered and less reliant on the Command centers mini-reactor. The base continued to grow as more supplies were sent down from orbit and was assembled by the Simulant Drones and SCVs.

A army of machine and Terran builders marched around the growing base as the defenses grew along with the number of structures. By night time the base had expanded to have many more buildings many of the first of which were Supply Pads, serving as elevated landing points and temporary cargo holding zone for flying convoys of D82-EST Darter dropships as they quickly deliver supplies from orbit to the planet side base. Delivering such things as basic building resources, prefabricated building sets, food rations, munitions, and prebuilt weapons and vehicle kits to forward bases where they were assembled **.**

After that four more reactors and two Firebases were built over the course of the next few hours along with more facilities such as.

Four Firebases. Which are a disposable and more combat specialised version to the Command Center with their own defense turrets and a underground level that holds a smaller version of the Command centers industrial 3d fabrication system that can construct and repair combat vehicles and build several types of other facilities in prefabricated building blocks.

Two Vehicle Factories used for constructing, repairing and assembling ground vehicles and exo suits like the Cyclops and SCV from prebuilt kits dropped by resupply transports or from local recycled resources. It also builds Simulant Zerg.

A dozen prefab Barracks that houses and feeds infantry and serves as a more specialized medical treatment center for any wounded.

And lastly one Field Armory which is a cross between a machine\fabrication shop, and a research laboratory and is where infantry arms, armor and ammo can be created in the field by dedicated engineers and scientists ready to supply the army.

"Ma'am the second Field armory has begun construction," a command staff member reported to Aliasse who was on her tenth cup of coffee by now.

"Good we're on schedule then. How are the Sensor towers?"

"Coming on line now ma'am," A second command staff officer reported.

"What's the date say?" Aliasse asked expecting the underground area to be swarming with Zerg.

The main screen changed show the terrain of the surrounding ten kilometers including underground. All of which showed no Zerg activity. Which only made Aliasse even more troubled. "What do the other landing sites say?"

The command staff typed on their screens getting in contact with the Alpha and Beta landing sites. "No activity at Alpha ma'am."No activity in Beta."

Aliasse was now concerned that the Zerg are planning something but what that was she couldn't say at the moment. "Have the simulant Drones and SVC teams start building four dozen Supply Depots. We'll need to stoke up on supplies for the long campaign." Supply depots hold gathered resources and equipment.

After that Aliasse and half her command staff took the night off going to their small quarters in the Command center for some sleep for the next day.

Through the night the Simulant Drones and SCV teams built up the Supply Depots so the base would have a large amount of resources to construct buildings, vehicles and supply the troops with food, ammo and armaments.

The base received a tiny amount of steady resources from the Simulant Drones mining the mineral rich Creep surrounding the base and the supplies from the fleet had continued to come in despite interference from raiding groups of Wyverns and Scourge attacking the supply craft as they traveled from orbit to the planets surface. However patrolling defense formations Longswords and Broadswords provided protection for the supply craft keeping any loses taken to a minimum.

The next morning Aliasse woke up and did her morning routine of stretching exercises, took a bath and brushed her teeth before putting on her uniform and buckled the buttons up before walking out the door to leave. She walked down the curved hallway until reaching the Control room where she found all of her command staff already at their stations and hard at work. The command staff members who through the night shift had already left to get some shut eye.

"Good morning," Aliasse said as she took her seat.

"Good morning commander Irving. The supply depots were completed during the night and we have started the construction of two more command centers along with five more Field Armories. Ten more Barracks. A dozen Supply landing Pads. Fifty mobile Turrets and seventeen Bunkers around the base perimeter.

"Good," Aliasse said pleased with the progress of their operation. But still she had a bad feeling the Zerg were up to something and that usually means underground." I want more sensore towers constructed and focused on scanning for underground activity. Next I want ten more Vehicle Factories built along with twenty Refineries. We need to build up our resource and production base or we'll be overwhelmed later on by the Zerg when they decide to hit us hard."

Refineries are Specialized buildings that Processes mined resources more efficiently and on a larger scale than the Command center Including processing Hydrogen from available water for the reactors. They can also purify water for drinking and bathing.

One of the younger command staff members gulped at that. "Commander you mean to say that the last attack wasn't a large attack?" the twenty something man asked as he was paled a little.

Aliasse turned to the younger officer. "Yes. The attack yesterday was probably just to test our ability to repeal an attack. Next time the Zerg will hit us harder."

The young man paled even more turning back to his station. "Guh! that's not good. Maybe I should have been a farmer."

One of the other command staff members laughed at the mans hesitation. "Haha. A little to late now huh! haha," the older man stated as he slapped the back of his younger coworker.

Aliasse glanced down to her feet in contemplation. "That's why we're not just going to sit back and wait," she said as she looked back up at her command staff. "Get in contact with Admiral Frederick Alvey. We'll start identifying targets closest to us and coordinate with the other landing forces."

"Yes ma'am!" The command staff all replied at once getting back to work as the communications officer quickly opened a comm channel with the commanders of the other two landing site bases. Shortly after two other screens blinked on showing the face of Admiral Frederick Alvey and the other belonged to General Young who was less sociable but respected leadership ability of those who showed real concern for those under them.

"What's the reason for the call Commander Irving?" Admiral Alvey asked as General young remain silent.

Aliasse nodded. "Well I think it's time for us to counterattack the local Zerg hive clusters that are know doubt gathering forces to overwhelm us with their numbers."

General Young nodded. "I agree. It's stupid to wait for them to come to us on their terms."

Although a navy man Admiral Alvey started his career as a Marine and then later joined the UNSC navy to continue his military career after a incident forced him to leave the Marine core. So he understood the concept of the best defense is a good offense. "All three of us are in agreement. So then what will our next move be?"

Aliasse nodded. "I was thinking that I would deploy the G-Zero on a solo scouting mission towards the nearest hive cluster to find a good location to establish a expansion base while the rest of my forces prepare for the main attack."

General Young something of a skeptic on the new weapon grunted in annoyance. "You mean that child's toy?"

Admiral Alvey gave a devious smile. "From what I've heard that child's toy has far surpassed the combat abilities of every other Plane, Tank and space fighter in the the UNSC's arsenal, even when out numbered twenty to one. I even heard it won a mock battle against a Vanguard cruiser once."

General Young twiched a eye in annoyance. "I've heard about that as well. A mock battle is one thing but a real battle is quite another thing entirely."

"Im confident in both the G-Zero and it's pilot," Aliasse said with confidence. Now as for my battle strategy I'll be focusing my forces to the west."

"I'll focus on Defending our territory production and resource support for the both of you," Admiral Alvey stated.

"I'll start expanding may forces northward and secure more territory. Eliminating any Hive cluster my forces come across," General Young replied.

After another hour of hammering out the detail's of their operational plan the three Commanders started sending their forces across the creep covered landscape. Aircraft like the AV-14 Hornet Attack VTOL and the UH-144 Falcon transport and light attack craft along with rapid ground scout forces of Warthogs were invaluable in Scouting the areas surrounding the three landing sites and killing any stray Zerg scouts or Impaler anti air units and Ravagers waiting in ambush.

* * *

 **Fifty Two Kilometers West of Gamma base.**

A pair of Zerg Impalers waited in between a crevice for any Terran forces to come their way. They waited for many hours since the Terrans landed but to a Zerg such things as boredom were not a problem as they are engineered to not feel such things only obey the leadership breeds such as the Queens, Brood Queens and Evolution masters.

There was a disturbance in the sky as the roar of engines vibrated the air and aroused the pair of Impalers from their rest. Both of them raised themselves up out of the crevice only to find a swarm of small dragonfly shaped machines waiting for them. Each emitting the sound and air vibrations that a engine would make. Then they flew off and moments later a beam shot out of the sky vaporising the Impalers and making the crevice wider as the stone glowed red hot.

High above the G-zero hovered at three thousand feet up with it's booster units attached to it's legs, upper and lower back, and armed with the small shield and folding blade with the mini Valkof beam cannon and the larger shield.

Selvaria sat in the cockpit in a blue and white bodysuit with the visor to her helmet obscuring her face. "Targets destroyed," No sooner had she said that then five more pairs of Impalers showed up on her sensors their positions being indicated by red dots on her hud.

Rapidly Selvaria had the G-Zero boost turn around and lowered it's altitude while leaning backward reducing the target size to the Impalers. Dozens of spines zipped over the airborne mecha as it aimed it's beam cannon and fired five times in five directions in rapid succession blasting all five groups of Impalers to super heated dust.

"Huh thats all," Selvaria asked as she stabilized and landed.

[All targets in the surrounding area have been eliminated.] a AI stated as a name on the middle display screen showed the name Veda.

"Let's move onto the next area then since we're making good time. Just a hundred more miles until we reach the next major hive cluster right."

[Ninety four point one kilometers] Veda the G-zeros Dumb AI replied without emotion.

The Dumb AI Veda was created by both Justin and Hibiki to increase the combat analysis and efficiency of the G-Zero and also functioned as a copilot of sorts that scans the area and gives the pilot information feedback through the pilots telepathic abilities which created a sixth sense that allowed the pilot to feel the surrounding area and any allies and enemies within range. Rather than rely just on the radar, Lidar (Light based rader) or visual sensors. Of course this only works if the pilot has psionic abilities like Selvaria.

A short time later the G-zero jetted through the sky doudging left, right side to side as it evaded glaives fired from groups of dozens of Ravagers and more spines from Impalers now moving in larger groups. G-zero boosted left then right avoiding the ballistic spines while shooting down the Glaives with it's head mounted vulcans and then aimed the mini Valkof beam cannon at the clustered groups but they burrowed moments before it fired resulting in blasted rock and nothing else. The G-zero couldn't track the Zerg underground beneath the creep because it's also a living organism and has a psionic signature acting like a stealth blanket for burrowed zerg units. Only the vibrations of their movements could be detected by ground based sensors.

"Tch. Their smart. Or have a intelligent commander," Selvaria stated a she landed.

* * *

 **In the hive cluster nearest Gamma landing point.**

A brood queen sat crossed legged, hands on her knees as she looked through the highly evolved senses of a Overseer observing the new Binoid (Means Bi-pedal huma-noid) combat frame the Terrans have fielded. The Brood queen was quite young compared to her older sisters and it showed as her armored had crown was smaller and she had smaller spines on her body but she was still over a hundred years old with the experience that comes with it. All of which told her that new unit was dangerous.

"Hmm interesting. Its fast and has limited flight abilities but."

As she watched through the eyes of her brood the giant binoid robot landed just a few miles from a group of burrowed Ultralisks. There was also the group of Impalers and Ravagers that had just borrowed nearby.

"Hmm how am I going go about this," The young brood queen thought as she saw that the pilot of the robot was doing the same as they remained stationary just waiting for a zerg to present a target. The young brood queen named Nysha tapped the index claw of her right hand on her right knee as she thought. "Hmm, a pincer attack it is then."

At that Nysha sent out dozens of her Mutalisks and Wyverns out from her hive cluster. The Wyverns flew higher than the Mutalisks who would serve as a distraction. After ten minutes the Mutalisks reached the G-zeros position and attacked sending clusters of their glaives at the white and blue robot. Only for it to bend it's knees at the last second jumping and boosting away before launching a barrage of missiles (from the top of the upper back pack booster) at the Mutalisk who split up and started launching micro glaive interceptors to shoot down the incoming missiles resulting in a cloud of explosions. Half of the missiles survived and continue to their targets.

Both the Mutalisks and the remaining missiles swarved and weaved around each other and through the sky as they evaded and tracked each other. Two missiles hit their targets while four others missed. The Mutalisks flew close to the ground using the terrain to cause the missiles to crash into rock formation when they couldn't make such hard high speed turns.

"Hah" Nysha exclaimed satisfied that her mutalisk have a higher instinctive evasion rate then the Terran missiles. But then the robot shot off it's beam cannon vaporising half the Mutalisk and making the rest scatter.

"That weapon is trouble."Numi said in concerned tone." Time to attack from all sides."

 **Back with Selvaria**

No sooner had she taken out half the Mutalisks then those Impalers and Ravagers un-burrowed right behind the G-zero showering it with their spines and glaives.

The G-zero lurched forward from the impacts.

"Shit from behind..." Dozens of heavy spines and glaives impacted the G-zeros psi-plating knocking the mecha off balance for a few seconds. "Ok take this."

G-zero spun around bringing up it's shield and shooting its vulcans ripping the Impalers apart but the more armored Ravagers survived the attack and needed a second dose of bullets. However right then a Ultralisk burst out from the ground behind the G-zero and wrapped its four kaiser blades around the G-zero like a world champion bodybuilder with four arms bear hugging a armored knight.

"Shit. I guess ones going to come from in front now," Selvaria stated as she went over the possibilities in a split second. And low and behold a second Ultralisk did unburrow from in front aiming its spine cannons at the G-zero who also has its beam cannon aimed at it.

In a single shot the head of the Ultralisk was blasted into atoms. Its body slumped abit but didn't fall.

"I hate those secondary brains dame't."

Now sooner had Selvaria said that then the second now headless Ultralisk stood backup and four eyes opened up two on it's torso and one each on the shoulders. All four staring at the G-zero and Selvaria.

"Heh heh nice to see you too ugly. No hard feelings right," Selvaria quipped as the second Ultralisk charged her. Selvaria had G-zero shoot its' beam cannon again this time at the charging Ultralisks front right leg. The beam cut right through the leg and the Ultralisk fell stopping just a dozen meters from G-zero. Once the first Ultralisk was downed the first tightened its grip. Dense bladed chitin grinded against Psi-plating of the G-zero.

"If the G-zero didn't have Psi-plating it and me would be in pieces right now," Selvaria mused as she detached the beam cannon letting it drop from the back of the arm and twisted the shield on the left arm a bit so G-zero could grab the psi-plated reinforced knife from its inner seatthing of the shield.

G-zero then unseatthed the blade flicked it around to a reverse position and stabbed it into the lower left kaiser blade of the Ultralisk and with a jerking motion severed the arm from the elbow. Now that the G-zeros left arm had more room to move it slashed at the bottom upper left arm severing it as well. Now free from the Ultralisks grip Selvaria had G-zero round house kick the thing stunning it for a moment which was enough to retrieve the beam cannon and boost away.

"Good thing I got this back. Hibiki and Justin would have chewed me out for loosing it in my first battle."

Selvaria now wanting to get some distance between her and the Zerg boosted away at top speed but then a formation of Wyverns dived down at her shooting their spines and glaives.

Sensing the incoming attack G-zero dodged right but two more Ultralisks un-burrowed and start shooting their spine cannons denting G-zeros armor and knocking it off course G-zero slammed into a small hill and spun mid air before crashing. The impact causes the shield to go flying and jared Selvaria in the cockpit, the restraints holding her in place.

"Gah! Ah. That was rough," Selvaria exclaimed as she shook her head recovering from the impact.

[Damage to left arm. Shield lost. Booster power reduced to 74%] Veda reported. [Suggest retreat and repairs.]

Selvaria not wanting her creations first mission to be a failure (which would be a negative in the eyes of any military official who may endorse the creation of anymore Mobile suits) decided to continue but first she had to deal with the remaining zerg in the air. Picking herself up Selvaria had the G-zero boost up into the air narrowly avoiding a second barrage of spines from the Ultralisk. Once airborne Selvaria focused her senses on the remaining Mutalisk and the Wyverns who were all circling around for another attack.

Then all at once they turned and shot all their spines and glaives at the G-zero. But a split second before they hit the G-zero boosted out of the way and zig-zagged through the air curving and arching around the Mutalisk as the arm mounted psi-blade unfolded and glowed with psionic energy. In two swift movement's G-zero bisected two Mutalisk and turn boosted around on a dime mid air and sliced through another and then another. In four swift movements all the Mutalisk were falling out of the air in pieces.

The Wyverns being faster, more maneuverable and learning from the deaths of the Mutalisk were not as easy to hit as they quickly evaded the G-zero's attacks.

Wanting to keep up her momentum Selvaria flew back down to the ground as the Ultralisks fired at her. The G-zero easily evaded the attacks boosting side to side and boost jumped up doing somersault over the Ultralisk. G-zero boosted over to the dropped shield picking it up and then used it as a ram into one Ultralisk knocking it over.

The Wyverns reentered the battle making a high speed passes at the G-zero peppering the shield with glaives and spines but the psi-plated shield easily took the attack. G-zero then shot off all it's remaining Missiles in one volley. The missiles saturated the sky as they tracked after the Wyverns. Distracting them long enough for the G-zero to take out the Ultralisk.

Taking the opportunity Selvaria boosted after the second Ultralisk using the shield to block its spine attacks. Upon getting up close it charged swinging it's kaizer blade only to miss as the G-zero boosted backwards and around to the Ultralisks side. In one graceful movement the upper half of the Ultralisk was severed from the lower half. The psi-plated enhanced blade cutting through the super dense chitin armor with ease. G-zero then boosted around to the back of the other Ultralisk that had just gotten back up before it could do anything and split it in half top to bottom.

In the sky Wyverns flew in all directions swerving this way and that as they evaded the missiles chasing after them. Wyverns dodged and swooped through the sky gracefully as they evaded some of the Terran missiles and with pinpoint shooting they downed the other one third of the missiles while the remaining missiles either hit their targets or ran out of fuel and self detonated.

Now that the missiles were dealt with the Wyverns turned back to the G-zero but before they could attack a beam shot through the air vaporising one Wyvern. Four more beams shot out at the speed of light making it impossible to evade after the trigger had been pulled.

The Wyverns scattered again but were shot out of the air one by one until the last two dived over a cliff and headed back to the hive cluster.

Breathing with some exhaustion Selvaria reported to Aliasse on the engagement. "Aliasse err commander. I've made multiple combat engagements against Zerg scouts and anti-air forces and a group of Mutalisks and Wyverns I believe came from the target hive cluster."

Aliasse appeared on screen. [Have you sustained any damage?]

"Yes. But noting that would prevent me from continuing onward."

[Full combat and damage report sent to commander Irving,] Veda stated as Selvaria felt a little embarrassed.

Aliasse's expression became more serious looking as she read the report. "I see. You've done well. But for now hold your ground. We'll be sending a air convoy to establish a forward operating base at your current location soon. You'll also receive repairs and ammo."

Selvaria sighed. "Ok. I guess I'll hold the line until reinforcements arrive."

Less than thirty minutes later a air convoy arrived consisting of over thirty two HT-400 Orca Heavy carryalls, (A new type of heavy transporter that has a long wide body with eight twin engines for vtol and forward flight including a antigravity drive that lessens the stress on the engines and allows the craft to can carry ten times the load of a Pelican or five times more than the D96-TCE Albatross.) and fifty Albatross transports along with a hundred Pelicans.

Selvaria watched as the large number of aircraft landed in ten single line formations and started off loading their cargo. Hundreds of Cyclops exo-suited infantry marched out of the Orcas while Warthogs, Scorpion MBT's, Kodiak and Mastodon APCs all hovered over the ground as they moved out in to defensive formations.

"Huh I see they finally started upgrading the ground forces with the new mini-anti-gravity units," Selvaria noted as the less expensive and smaller anti-gravity units were developed to solve the problem of Zerg Creep which would normally slow down any land based forces and make them vulnerable to a air or underground ambuse. Not any longer.

Aliasse appeared on the G-zeros 360 degree cockpit screen. [Selvaria. Wait their until the G-zero gets fixed up. I have a feeling that the zerg counter attack will only get more intense as we progress further into their territory.]

"Yes I agree. That last battle was rough and I was only facing a small force."

 **With Aliasse.**

 **Gamma Bases Main Command center.**

"Hmph. I wouldn't call dozens of Impalers, Ravagers, four Ultralisks, and dozens of Mutalisks and Wyverns a small force. More medium sized if anything.

On screen Selvaria had a chuckle. [Heh heh. Well guess I'll just have to do better to impress the brass with G-zero. Maybe take out a hive cluster by myself.]

Aliasse got a idea and gave a devious grin. "Ha. Then you wouldn't mind if I sent you to destroy the Hive cluster alone would you."

On screen Selvaria paled a little. [Err. Just hold on now I didn't say that. I just said maybe.]

Aliasse smiled with a chuckle. "Oh i'm just teasing you. When we attack it will be in force. I don't want to be wasting time or my forces for nothing. When we attack I want you and the G-zero to be the tip of the spear and use all of your fire power to break through their armored domes so we can hit their insides with some missiles."

Selvaria nodded on screen [Got it-] Selvaria looked to her right. [The repair crews are here.]

"Take some time off and-" *Boom*

Explosions of green acid and barrages of Glaives bombarded the UNSC forces at both Gamma base and the Expansion point. Cyclops shot down the living artillery along with the rest of the defenders as Kodiak APC mounted artillery and Cobra multipurpose MBTs, rotated their large rail-cannons into position and fired a return volley that screamed through the air as they flew a good twenty nine kilometers to their targets.

The attack force numbering a few hundred Ravagers were blasted to fleshy jam buy the return artillery and quickly burrowed to retreat.

"Damn I knew they would do something like that," Aliasse cursed but felt grateful for following her instinct's and setting up all her artillery forces on permanent standby and on rotating shifts just incase the Zerg tried a artillery barrage like that. Aliasse conversed with her command staff and looked to her own monitors to check the extent of the damage to her base which was light with only minor casualties thanks to the quick and prepared counter artillery attack.

Aliasse then checked on the expansion forces and Selvaria who also only took minor damage and losses thanks to their group of counter artillery that was with them as well.

"You ok Selvaria?" Aliasse asked.

[Ugh yeah. Wise I could have hit them back but the artillery guys beat me to the punch. Hah. Anyway Hibiki and Justin are here. G-zero out.]

With that Selvaria cut the comline. Her face blinking off screen.

Aliasse sighed as she refocused on getting that base expansion up and running. Using her touch pad and com radio she quickly used the over head view of the expansion area to gauge the most defensible positioning of the buildings and turrets. Within a hour a defense parameter was established and two of the newly built Command centers constructed at Gamma base floated over a hill near the expansion base. Escorted by multiple formations of a few dozen Falcons, Hornet's, and Sparrowhawk gunships. With all the grace of a whale the Command centers slowly lumbered over to the landing spots in the wide open area surrounded by a small army and deployed it's landing gear.

After touching down the two Command centers started deploying SCVs and Simulant Drones to clear away and mine the Creep in the area. Not to long after the area around the Command centers was clear of the living mineral rich meat carpet and the command centers started recycling the resources and constructing prefab pieces of Supply pads which would allow Darters to land from the fleet in orbit which would supply even more resources at a faster rate. Within another hour ten supply pads had been completed and the Darters continually supplied the base with everything it would need to quickly construct a full base.

* * *

 **With Nysha**

Brood queen Nysha walked into her throne room her tail swaying after having a creep meal and resumed her mission to push the Terrans off the planet but as soon as she sat down Zavara contacted her.

 **"Nysha. What's the progress of the Terran's in your area?"**

 **"Ah! master Zavara. The Terrans have deployed a new type of unit and it has proven to be far more powerful than another seen before,"** Nysha replied as she sent her superior her memories of the G-zero.

 **"Hmm I see. An interesting new unit. And dangerous. Focus on taking it out."**

 **"Yes master."** Nysha mentally bowed. **"If I may ask what is your overall strategy for pushing the Terrans off world. If you were to send all of our forces in we could overwhelm them with ease?"**

 **"It's simple. I didn't order a full scale attack once the Terrans landed because that's what they would have expected. Did you not get the report concerning their Fusion weapons?"**

Mentally taken aback by the lack of mental foresight Nysha sighed. **"I understand they would have just deployed those weapons in mass and wiped out our grouped forces that would have been easy targets to that type of large scale AOE** (area of effect) **weapon."**

 **"Good your understanding strategy more. Now me and Navash, will start a major counter attack on the other two Terran landing sites. While Kilysa, retreats her fleet from orbit to the other side of the planet to recover her losses."**

Nysha was again mentally shocked she knew the Kilysa had taken significant losses in the orbital battle but to lose over half her forces?! **"Is Brood queen Kilysa ok?"** Nysha asked with some concern. Having spared against and trained with the Brood queen on more than a few occasions.

 **"Yes. Her Behemoth was wounded by the main weapon of the flagship of the Terrans fleet."**

 **"I felt a great power in orbit but didn't think things were going that badly,"** Numi stated with a little trepidation.

 **"Yes. The main weapon of the Terrans flagship the Infinity is something to fear and respect. But the Empress herself had my sister tasked with destroying it. It would not do to leave the Terrans with such a weapon. Continue in your own mission Nysha. I will begin my own."**

The high ranked Brood queen cut the telepathic line leaving Nysha to think. After a half hour of thinking it over Nysha came up with a strategy to strike back at the Terrans. Gathering up half her whole brood (a rather small one in comparison to others but still numbering over ten thousand) Nysha created formations of her Wyverns and Mutalisk in which the Wyverns would fly higher in overwatch positions over the Mutalisk while they make bombing runs. Her normal ground forces consisting of Zerglings, in front. Roaches, Hydralisk, Impalers and Ravagers in that order and formation with their larger Alpha versions.

The few dozen Ultralisks Nysha had left were on the right and left flanks of the main forces. She then split her ground force's into two identical groups and sent ten Nydus worms to two different spots, five twenty kilometers north of the Terran expansion base and the other five south at the same distance. Hours passed as the Nydus worms burrowed to their target points and just as they were closing in Nysha stopped their movements just a few hundred meters from the surface.

"Ok then let's see how the humans take a attack from all sides all at once," Nysha mused as she sent in her air forces in as one massive armada to the Terran expansion base.

* * *

 **With Selvaria**

Back at the Terran expansion base the repairs to the G-zero were going smoothly With Hibiki and Justin on the job, Leaving Selvaria to rest and relax recovering her stamina before the next battle.

In a Barracks cafeteria Selvaria grabbed a plate and picked up her meal from the selection along the food racks. Anything from steak, potato's and cornbread to Pizza and ice cream were among the selection. After choosing a stake, steamed carrots and some buttered bread with a side of chocolate sundae. Selvaria sat down to eat but the sight of her rather unique flight suit caught the attention of some of the Cyclops troopers who were also having their meal brake.

Selvaria ate her meal hearing the others around her gossip about how the war was going and the casualties and her and the G-zero. She paid no heed to the one talking about her and just ate her meal. A few moments after she had finished her meal Justin entered the cafeteria and looked around quickly finding his love interest.

"Selvaria we got the G-zero all fixed up," Justin reported waving his hand as he approached her.

Selvaria emptied her tray and any leftovers into the nearby garbage before turning to Justin. "It's about time. Hows the G-zeros shoulder."

"Don't worry its all fixed. No lasting damage. I couldn't say the same if G-zero didn't have it's psi-plating reinforcement throughout it's body through," Justin said rubbing the back of his head uncomfortably as the two walk towards the exit.

"Well i'll get back there then. Don't know when-"

 _ ***Klaxon blaring* [**_ _Warning incoming Zerg attack wave. All base personnel to your duty stations. I repeat Zerg attack wave in coming. All personnel to your stations]_

In the instant after the announcement everyone in the cafetiera jumped up and ran out the doorway. The crowed knocking Justin into Selvaria and pinning the two close together against the wall making them both blush at their situation as the tide of soldiers and base personnel run past them. After everyone else had left the two teenagers stared into each others eyes a moment blushing again before snapping back to reality and separated.

"Uh! I... should get back to the G-zero yeah. Uh get somewhere safe," Selvaria exclaimed as she ran off leaving Justin to wave her off and try and deal with his emotions for her and the rather close moment they had, unplanned as it was.

Selvaria ran as fast as her legs could move. All over the base thousands of personnel vehicles and Cyclops exo armors marched and moved as artillery cannons fired at the still distant foe. In the air formations of Hornets, Sparrowhawks and Pelican gunships gathered and flew off to intercept the incoming Zerg forces.

As Selvaria neared the horizontal gantry in which the G-zero was laying on she sensed Zerg incoming and looked north seeing a massive dark cloud approaching. Turrets all over the base rotated towards the cloud and started firing volley after volley missiles. After a few seconds dozens upon dozens of explosions puffed all over the cloud as they hit or were shot down but either way it didn't look like the anti-air fire was having much effect on such a large number of Zerg.

Selvaria double timed it to the G-zero as Hibiki and other technicians were getting off the sleeping giant.

"All done. Go get'em. And be careful," Hibiki shouted as she and the others ran passed Selvaria.

"You be safe to Hibiki," Selvaria yelled back as she ran up to the laying form of the G-zero and jumped in the cockpit, the lights lit up and the main 360 degree screen blinked on showing the hud and dozens more missiles rocketing high over head.

The G-zero's eyes lit up a bright blue as the lidar (light based radar) turned on along with all the other sensors. On screen thousands of life signals blinked as they slowly approached the expansion base from both the north and south but the swarm of flying Zerg approaching from the west was far faster and would hit sooner.

Selvaria took her helmet out from its compartment behind the seat and put it on. "Ok i'll take out the Zerg air-force. That should level the battlefield a bit."

G-zero sat up as volleys of glaives rained down onto the base. A hundred phalanx gatling gun pods on the turrets filled the air with tracer fire shooting down at least half the glaives leaving the rest to rain down all over the buildings and vehicles as they were moving out.

"Ok take this," Selvaria yelled as she moved G-zeros arm aiming the beam cannon at the cloud of incoming Zerg and fired.

The beam sliced through the sky traveling tens of kilometers before it hit the cloud of zerg. It sweeped long the sky slicing a rather large hole in the cloud of zerg causing them to scatter into two groups that split up and flanked the Terran expansion base from the east and west.

"Damn. Ok then how about this."

Selvaria continued shooting into the clouds of in coming Mutalisks and Wyverns knowing that if she doesn't take them out the base will be overwhelmed soon. Looking down to her weapons rack nearby Selvaria saw four missile pods and through the G-zero activated the auto loading weapons rack. Each of the the four missile pods extend on robotic arms and attached to the G-zeros outer lower legs and the twin flat oval shaped boosters extending from the the lower back. Selvaria also picked up the Gatling gun-pod before boosting off into the sky.

As soon as G-zero was a thousand meters up Selvaria boosted at the western swarm firing every weapon she has. The beam cannon blasted holes through the zerg formations. The gatling pod ripped the flying Zerg apart in a hail of tracer fire. The missiles from the new pods split into hundreds of micro-missiles turning a good chunk of the swarm into exploded meat bits.

Back on the ground at open plain twenty kilometers to the north half the UNSC forces hovered over the creep covered landscape forming defense line's even as the living tide of Zerg rushed at them, baring their fangs, claws and itching to spill blood. Along the frontline's of the preplanned interception point mixed units stood at the ready. Spartans, and Cyclops exo-suits hopped off or marched out of the transports and stood with their heavy rifles at the ready as the Warthogs, Scorpion tanks, Kodiak and Mastedon APCs spaced out evenly apart with the artillery at the rear consisting of Kodiak artillery, Cobra's and some of the new artillery vehicles named the Widow-nest. Another vehicle a special mobile version of the Sensor tower deployed a swarm of its Dragonfly drones across the battlefield as a counter to the Zergs Locust. A tiny war was fought between these two small scouts even before the main battle started.

Normal Infantry were deemed too weak for the battle and were kept back at base as the last line of defense.

To the flanks of the UNSC forces stood Formations of Simulant Zerg. Metal Zerglings and Hydralisk paired with Roaches and Ultralisk. Their silver, chrome armor reflecting the light as they stood like statue's waiting for the commander to give the order to attack.

Off in the distance the real Zerg stampeded across the Creep enveloped land as their hunger for battle and the kill gave them a minor boost to their speed along with the creep as they came ever closer to their prey. The UNSC troops started to feeling the rumble of the ground beneath their feet as the Zerg forces reached the one kilometer mark. Zerg Locust flying high in the air sighted in on the gathered UNSC forces and allowed Nysha to redirect the stampeding Zerglings for a full frontal attack but a moment later the Locusts were attacked by their Dragonfly counter parts. And moments later the Spartans and all the other tanks, APCs and Cyclops aimed at the incoming Zerg forces but still didn't fire.

 **With Nysha.**

As her ground forces approached the UNSC defense line the Brood queen got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. But before she could follow her instincts and make her forces hold position the ground beneath their feet exploded. The explosion covered a large area and enveloped most of the front Zerg lines.

 **With Northern UNSC expansion base defense forces.**

Half a mile before the Zerg reached the Terran forces defense line the ground below the charging Zergs feet exploded killing half the front line forces and stalling the rest behind. Then all at once the the UNSC forces opened fire in a hail of bullets, missiles, grenade's and cannon shells completely covered the battleground with gunfire. Gunning down many Zerg that survived the first blast. The Zerg quickly reformed their ranks only for them to fall apart again as long ranged artillery rained down blasting any large group that gathered.

 **With Nysha.**

The brood queen tried reforming her forces frantically while trying to find the weak point in the Terrans forces. She scanned the battlefield observing all the Terran ground forces noticing that all of them were firing except for a group of unidentified vehicle's at the rear of the Terran forces. Investigating further Nysha sent a few dozen Locust to get a closer look at them and after most were taken out by the Dragon-fly's they discovered that these vehicles (Shaped like a large truck with a large rear hexagon shaped trailer mounted on six wheels) had dozens of small holes on their under belly that looked like they housed something. But before the Locust could see anything else the UNSC Dragon fly's attacked them. Nysha found out at least about new Terran vehicles and that these small Locust sized drones were made to hunt Zerg Locust just before she lost felt the death of the last one amongst the Terran forces.

"Tch these Terrans keep developing more and more weapons to counter us," Nysha mused as she sensed her forces being wiped out by the smaller UNSC forces at both the north and south battle zones. Knowing a lost cause and not wanting to waste her forces she recalled her forces saving what she could. Not a single Terran had died during the attack and that got the brood queen fuming. Not because she wanted to kill Terrans but because she and her forces were so completely outplayed and all because of the new weapon the Terrans used. Remembering her training she quickly calmed down.

*SIGH* "Next time. It won't be so easy," Nysha stated as both a promise and a threat.

 **With UNSC forces north battlegrounds.**

The UNSC forces continued to fire at the retreating Zerg forces until only silence and the corpses of the dead remained. After a short pause the Terrans started cheering and hooting at their victory. A victory that could have gone very badly if it weren't for the efficient use of the new Widow nest which deployed the burrowing Widow mine. A multi legged burrowing bomb that was based on the Zerg baneling which was one of the few types of zerg that weren't recreated in project Simulant by Dr Hadaway. Instead he created a new robotic unit named the Widow mine as a comparative unit used in ambush's that can like the Baneling burrow and self detonate either on command or when set in proximity detonation.

 **With Selvaria**

In the skies over the UNSC Gamma expansion base the sky born battle continued. Flocks of Wyverns and Mutalisk swarmed around the G-zero assaulting it with their spines and glaives but few could land a solid hit because of both the mecha's high speed reaction time and pure speed when moving at top velocity. Many Zerg fell to the G-zeros attacks as it boosted away from the attacking forces dodging the barrage of glaives and spines as it continued zig zagging through the sky flying backwards and then jetting forwards using the shield to plow through the dense flocks of the Zerg like a giant battering ram. Selvaria took full advantage of the G-zeros bulk and mass as well as the weapons. After boosting through a dens flock of Wyverns Selvaria boost turned around and gunned the closely grouped Zerg with a full barrage from the gun-pod and Beam cannon filling the sky with falling corpses. Taking the moments respite she glancing back down at the base seeing that it's been over run by the other half of the Zergs flyers.

Selvaria was preparing to attack the remaining Zerg air forces but then all at once all they started leaving flying off back to their hive cluster. Half of those retreating were gunned down by the few remaining turret's and infantry armed with missile launchers.

"Huh? what's going on. Zerg never retreat like this?" Selvaria asked her self turning the G-zero back toward the front lines of battle to the north and saw a large plum of dust and smoke off in the distance. "Did the others win?" Wanting answers Selvaria got in contact with the officer in charge of the expansion base. "Colonel Jacobs this is Selvaria. What's going on why are the Zerg retreating so early?"

On screen appeared a man in his thirties with a rather large mustache.

[Ah special ranked officer Bles. The answer is that my strategy with the new Widow mines gave us such a overwhelming victory that the bugs retreated en-mass. Haha]

*Relieved sigh* "I understand. But Colonel don't get a big head just because their retreating. More than likely the Zerg commander just didn't want to take anymore in unnecessary casualties and retreated to reorganize a defense or counter attack."

Colonel Jacobs expression went from jovel to serious. [Hmm I understand. We need to keep up our momentum and push onwards to the next hive cluster. I'll begin mass producing more of those simulants and have them attack the hive cluster. And I would like you to aide them as they punch their way forwards.]

"Understood colonel. I'll land and resupply until you get the simulants ready and organized."

 **With Colonel Jacobs, Gamma expansion base command center control room.**

"Yes that will do. Be ready in one hour miss Bles,"

[One hour got it.] officer Bles replied cutting the com-line.

A command officer by the name of Amy turned to the Colonel. "Sir shall I reorganize the Simulant ranks now."

The colonel glanced over to her. "Yes. Have them gather at the northern battle grounds and have some of the simulant Drones here at the base repair any damage the one's already there had incurred and then leave them with the forces their. It will allow us to make quicker repairs to them in the field rather then bringing them all the way back here or sending the Drones out to them."

Amy nodded and replied. "Yes colonel," before turning to her station and carrying out her orders.

A moment later the main screen blinked on with the face of commander Irving. Jacobs smiled as he saw his commanding officer who was also of a special rank like the young miss Bles. The colonel had no animosity towards the two of them but the special ranks that were given just rubbed him the wrong way. Mainly because the Colonel himself and his men all achieved their ranks through years if not decades of hard work and then these two upstarts just get a free pass. Jacobs was however pleased to see that both were competent in their duties so he had no complaints. "Ah miss Irving. What the reason for your call?"

[Colonel Jacobs. I just got a quick report about the attack. How is everything?]

Colonel Jacobs could sense in her voice that Miss Irving was concerned about miss Bles given their history which the Colonel had read up on. "Shes doing just fine, along with my forces. Eh but my base could use a new coat of paint however. A swarm of Zerg air breeds really did a number on it. Casualties were thankfully light thanks to both the heavy anti-air defenses I had built up along with S.R.O. (special ranked officer) Bles and that G-zero of her's. I do have to admit it is quit powerful taking on as many Zerg as it did single handedly and coming out of it in one piece. We might not have survived if Bles hadn't distracted half the enemy air-forces."

On screen Aliasse grew a tiny smirk that the colonel noticed. [Understood. I'm glad you think so highly of her and the G-zero colonel. In any case the rest of the simulants are finally being off loaded from the Infinity and the Valhalla class battlecruisers along with the other reinforcements that we were unable to deploy given the interference from the Zerg's fleet. So we'll finally get full reinforcements now since the battle up there has ended in our favor. Once our forces are strong enough and organized we'll push harder into Zerg controlled territory destroying any hive clusters we find while building up our own bases along the way.]

The colonel grew his own grin at the sound of reinforcements. "That's all good news but. What about the deep underground hives? If we leave them alone they will hit us enmass from below with god knows how many Nydus worms and other breeds of those damn bugs?!"

Aliasse nodded in agreement. [The Infinity and the fleet will handle that. We just have to get them the coordinates to the targets. Small Spartan stealth teams will infiltrate the Zerg underground tunnels and will plant special becone's that can get through the interference from the creep giving the fleet the hive cluster locations. The'll only have have Dragonfly spy scouts for back up. Anything more will be too risky given they can move faster in small groups.]

"Hmm so we just have to find the things huh. Im guessing the fleet will use their, new toys," The colonel said in a telling tone.

[If you mean the new Psi-plating reinforced planetary crust cracking fusion warhead MAC shells. (AKA Hive busters) Then yes.] Aliasse replied.

"Miss Irving I'm just wondering but why not a missile instead of a MAC shell?"

[They don't have enough velocity to penetrate more then three kilometers. Only MAC cannons have the power to accelerate the shells to the velocities needed to penetrate far enough into the planets crust.] the Valkyrur replied.

"Ah... that makes sense. Anyway thanks for the updates. Miss Irving."

[Colonel Jacobs.] Aliasse said ending the communique.

 **G-zero repair gantry, thirty minutes later.**

After the battle Justin and Hibiki along with the other technians all got back to work rearming the G-zero and cleaning out the Zerg entrails from the crevices between the armor plates.

"Selvi." *grunt* pules out Zerg carapace and gore. "Next time you use the G-zero as a battering ram at least try and remember how much of a pain taking these gross roadkill parts are ok."

One of the other technicians peeked out from the G-zeros leg. "Wouldn't it be skykill then since these are Mutalisk and Wyvern pieces?"

Hibiki sighs not caring for the correction in her wording. "Anyway it's going to take hours to clean all this out and make sure it doesn't impede the big guys mobility or systems. Plus he needs a good cleaning."

Selvaria sat in the cockpit calibrating the systems while she kinda listened. "Uh,uh."

Hibiki popped her head over the open cockpit looking a little angry at Selvaria's lack of response. "Hey you listening."

Hibiki fumed a bit before a horn honked catching her attention. Looking up she saw a Elephant transport and mobile command base driving passed them. "Oh hey they got those things ground side."

"Yeah." Hibiki turned around to see Justin approaching holding two large suitcases. "The fleet has finally won the war in orbit and are now free to send down more forces."

"Oh" Hibiki replied as she hoped down off the G-zero. "You got the spare parts?"

"Yes," was Justin's reply as he handed both large and heavy suitcases to Hibiki and another technician.

*Ouf* "Heavy," Hibiki said as she and the technician brought the parts up to the G-zeros chest where some of the armor plates where folded open.

Selvaria then popped her head up out of the cockpit. "So how much longer do I have to wait?"

Hibiki grumbled. "Grrrah. I said a few hours. We can't just leave all this... stuff clogged in the G-zeros gears... so to speak."

* * *

 **With Spartan** **Obsidian,** **platoon in Zerg underground tunnels.**

After having killed the ten Nydus worms which had been use to send the attack force to Gamma expansion base. The Spartans decided to use the corpses as convenient entrance to the Zergs own underground tunnels. First Simulant Drones were used to burrow down through the now rotting tunnel like body of the Nydus worm and then a elevator was built in the body descending a few miles down until reaching the network of underground tunnels detected by deep ground penetrating vibration scan from sensor towers and their mobile counterparts.

It was another few hours before Obsidian platoon numbering 40 Spartans along with a swarm of Simulant Dragonfly's some perching on their shoulders stepped into the tunnels of chitin and Creep.

"Aw man this stuff again!," Grumbled Mimi Rose as she stepped off the makeshift elevator and onto the Creep floor with her thirty nine other fellow Spartans whom were all in kneeled defense positions along the living tunnel wall's weapons at the ready.

"Suck it up. We have a mission to complete," stated Hamilton Honeysett as he kneeled by the wall holding a heavy machine gun.

"Lay off man anyone would feel uncomfortable in this place," Norman interjected.

"Fine whatever..." Hamilton replied.

Captain Esmond Neilson stood at the front of the Platoon of forty Spartans and gave one last sigh of reservation before they began their mission. "Ok people this is what we trained for. We're the elite of the first gen Spartans and that's why we're here so lets get those coordinates to the fleet so they can level the hives down here and we can get back up to the surface. Remember to use those Dragonfly's to scout the area in front of you before continuing onwards. The last thing we need is to raise the Zerg's alarm before we even found their underground hive clusters. Now if everyone's ready lets begin operation bunker buster."

In the next instant the Spartans split up into four smaller groups of ten each as they scattered and ran at a brisk pace through the tunnels. The robotic Dragonfly's flying far ahead of them scouting the tunnels for any Zerg as the Terran super soldiers moved forwards. Soon after the team Mimi Rose was apart of reached their first major obstacle which turned out to be a few dozen Zerglings and six Hydralisk guarding a intersection of four tunnels.

 **Chapter End.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

 **Rise of the Spartans part 7**

 **12 hours after Obsidian platoon entered Zerg tunnels**

 **200 hundred kilometers west of Gamma Base.**

The humming of antigrav engines signaled the approach of a armored battalion of Scorpion tanks and Mastodon APC's numbering a few dozen their armored formed gliding over the crep covered ground on a long distance patrol scanning for any Zerg activity in the area.

Inside lead Scorpion tank. "This is Stinger 4 to command nothing to report. Continuing patrol."

[Roger Stinger 4. Make sure to report any distress signals as it could be the Spartan group underground.]

"Roger command. We'll-" *Static buzz* [Need-] *Static* [Extract] *Static* [Repeat this is squad 4 of Obsid-] *Gunfire* -latoon. We are in a box canyon and-] *Static*gunfire*distant roar* [-ed extract NOW!]

The tank commander leading armored battalion Stinger 4 looked to his comm officer. "Where are they."

The comm officer triangulated the weak signal by using the Dragonfly scouts that had been scattered all over the lands surrounding the Terran Bases and beyond. "Their twenty one kilometers south west in a box canyon. There doesn't look like theres anyway a normal ground force could get in their without taking a long way around the cliffs. But."

The tank commander grinned. "But were not a normal ground force. Are we." The tank commander got on the line with the rest of his armored cavalry battalion. "Listen up people we got some Spartans in a pickle over in a box canyon with some high cliffs in the way. Now are we going to let our fellow Terrans die just because we couldn't get there in time."

[Sir no sir] the rest of the battalion roared back.

The armored vehicles of the Stinger 4 armored battalion tilted to one side as they made a hard turn towards the box canyon. The creep rippling as they hovered over it and picked up speed. The Battalion swarved around small mountains and tall vertical rock formations painted gray purple by the creep as they increased their speed. As they approached the box canyon the Spartans distress calls only became all the more desperate as the tank commander got some video from the fleet in orbit.

The box canyon seen from above was shaped like a rough oval and on the southern side were the cliffs and on the other were the bodies of hundreds of Zerg ranging from Zerglings to Roaches besieging a large elevated rock formation as a hail of gunfire raining down on them from atop it cutting through the charging Zerg forces. All of which were coming from a cave entrance right at the base of the cliffs the Armored cavalry battalion were heading for and that gave the tank commander a crazy idea.

* * *

 **With Spartan Obsidian platoon.**

On top the elevated rock formation the Spartans rained lethal fire down onto the Zerg clamoring for their blood with pinpoint accuracy. The Terrans had infiltrated the Zergs own underground hive clusters and planted beacons that would allow the fleet to target the hives scattered underground. But squads 4 and 1 had came upon a massive cocoon that was defended by a alpha Queen and her elite guards of Hunter Killers.

"Keep shooting," yelled Hamilton as he unloaded his heavy machine gun onto a group of Hydralisk 500 feet away.

"Janie you need some ammo?" asked Mimi as she blew a Zerglings head off with her custom ARC-920 which was modified to look kind of like a hightech version of a M1A rifle.

"No," *Bang* The loud and defaning crake of Janie's heavy ARC-950 echoed through the canyon as the projectile ripped through the armor of a Roach and exploded it from the inside scattering chitin and gore over the ground and the surrounding Zerg. The ARC-950 was to the ARC- 920 what a Barrette was to a M4 carbine.

"Wheres that extract, shouldn't a Pelican be on the way," complained Norman as he unloaded the last of his ammo on a Hydralisk shooting it's spines at him but the psi-plating of his Mjolnir armor just shrugged it off. "Dammit i'm out of ammo!"

"If you can't shoot then get in their and swing that blade of yours around," Stated Hamilton.

"Oh right! yeah ok and I suppose you'll cover me," Norman retorted bringing out his backup M6D 1911, a .45 caliber pistol and started shooting but the low caliber rounds just bounced off the chitinous armor of the Zerg.

*Bang*Echo* "I thought you said you were out of ammo Norman?" asked Mimi in a raised voice.

"I am. This little thing isn't doing shit!."

"Shut up and get down there you little wuss," Another Spartan named Nick said as he kicked Norman off the rock. Norman made a short cry before landing in a face plant in the Creep cushioning his fall.

"Oof Nick," Norman stated as he holstered his pistol and detached his psi-sword from his back holding it in both hands as the Zerglings took notice of him and charged at the Terran. "When we get back," In a series of slashes and swings Norman bisected the three Zerglings. "I'm going to kick your ass."

Norman then sprinted forwards to a pair of Hydralisk who quickly fired upon him only for their spines to again bounce off his armor as their heads flopped to the ground. The rest of the Zerg became more attracted to Norman now and almost all at once the Zerg closest to the rock formation Zerg piled Norman.

Norman dodged and leaped out of the way as a pack of Zerglings jumped at him. In a few quick motions of his blade he bisected six of them and leaped 10 feet back away as some Hydralisk shoot at him. "Ugh a shield would be helpful here. I know the Mjolnir can take this level of damage but I'ed rather not take the hits at all."

Just then a black armored Hunter Killer erupted out of the ground and all the Zerg just stopped backed up a bit and started forming a semi-circle around the Spartans who had stopped shooting at that point.

"Ugh guys it's one of those things again!" Mimi exclaimed causing her and the others to remember the Hunter Killers they had faced when they had battled that Alpha Queen.

"Uh I got this," Norman stated as he charged the Hunter Killer sword in hand.

Then something terrifying happened The Hunter Killers body started to glow a ghostly blue with stylised markings growing across its body ending at its two triple arm blades which it flexed open in a combat stance. *Clang* Normans psi-blade was parried away by a deft flick of the Hunter Killers own psi-armor enhanced blades and in the same instant the Hunter Killer slashed at Norman with it's other arm just as he reflexively evaded. Had Norman been a mila-second slower he would have been seriously wounded or cut in half.

* * *

 **With Zavara**

In her underground hive cluster at the center of the super hive cluster Brood queen Zavara watched from her throne of chitin as the Terrans soldiers faced off against a equal.

"Hmm now lets see how these Spartans do against a second generation Hunter Killer," the Brood queen thought as she watched from the eyes of a Locust perched on a cliff face overlooking the Spartans.

* * *

 **Back With Norman and the Hunter Killer.**

"Shit it deflected the psi-blade..." Norman thought as he grabbed his side where some of his blood leaked through the three scrapes on his armor. "That means it's got the same psionic reinforcement as the Brood queens and the Leviathan's."

The other members of Obsidian platoon could only watch on as the two combatant's squared off. Like all Spartans Obsidian platoon had been briefed on the sometimes odd Zerg behavior. Which in this case them not continuing to attack the Zerg when they ended their own attack means that there is now a unspoken truce at the moment. But that also means the Zerg leaders maybe that brood queen from before had taken an interest in them.

"So uh are they going to dual or something?" a member of Obsidian platoon asked as she kept a finger close to her guns trigger.

"I guess." another Spartan said shrugging. "If anything this will give us some time to rest and wait for reinforcements."

"At least we should be prepared to retreat if things go badly. Because if Norman looses we'll probably be next."

All the Spartans of Obsidian platoon made a ghost of a nod as they watched the two dueling combatants gauge each other.

"Uh.. ok... no pressure. I just have to win a dual, or stall for time until other UNSC forces arrive. So the strategy is stay alive Norman." Norman said to himself as he two handed the two meter long sword.

The Hunter Killer eyed the Spartan holding the blade sensing that it was enhanced by the same forces that flowed through its body. It briefly glanced up to the others up on the elevated rock before giving the Terran in front of it, its undivided attention. With a confident growl the Hunter Killer stepped forward on it's four clawed legs.

Norman bent his legs and held his blade pointed forwards but the Hunter Killer just continued its slow confidant walk towards him until the tip of his blade touched the elite Zergs chest cutting a few tiny millimeters into it.

This told Norman three things. One the Hunter Killer is experienced and smart. Two Its taunting him to make the first move which is something that could cost him and maybe his comrade's their lives. Three he could injure it with his blade.

Both the Spartan and the Hunter Killer eyed each other as everyone around them both Zerg and Terran stood still as statue's. Then in a instant both moved in a blur of motion. The Hunter Killer flexed it's arms slashing with both of them like a vice attack from both sides. Norman evaded by scant millimeters leaping backwards simultaneously bringing his sword to his left side and twisting the blade so it pointed down and in the next instant dashed forwards swinging upwards with all his strength. The Hunter Killer narrowly evaded the blade by rearing up on its rear legs and jumped backwards the instant it's attack failed. With a low growl the Hunter Killer glanced down so see the single inch deep cut that traced up from its waist to its right shoulders that for a moment bled before it started regenerating slowly.

The moment the Hunter Killer looked back to the Terran he leaped forwards slashing in a series of attacks that the Hunter Killer deflected and countered with it's own slashing attacks. The two combatants slashed and parried, thrust and blocked, evaded and side stepped as their battle continued on for a good few minutes until Norman was getting frustrated and made a mistake that cost him three fingers as one of the triple blades of the Hunter Killer struck his sword hand. The three lower fingers fell to the ground dripping blood from the stumps of Normans fingers.

"Gh! damn it. Ah!"

"He lost some fingers in that last attack," Hamilton stated seeing the severed digits on the ground.

"We have to do something," Mimi Rosa stated in a concerned tone that all the Spartans could feel.

[What are you waiting for cut that damn things head off!]

The radio transmission caught the Spartans a little off guard but then they recognised the voice.

[I thought you were a Spartan Norman stop hesitating. Calm your mind and show that bug what a Spartan can do]

"Is that ?" Janie started.

"That weapon crazy girl Harriette Ness," Mimi finished.

Hamilton checked his com unit to link to command and found that their position was being monitored by Fleet command on board the Infinity and relayed to the rest of the Spartans "Apparently we have audience. The other Spartans at base have been watching us."

A member of Obsidian platoon looked at Hamilton. "How many?"

Hamilton grinned under his helmet. "All of them."

Norman sighed at his embarrassment of the Spartans and gritted his teeth taking a simple holding stance evaluating his opponent who was doing the same. The Spartan and Hunter Killer locked eyes for a brief before Norman charged. The Hunter Killer flexed it's bladed arms and lashed out with it's right arm. Norman reacted in just a few milliseconds of start of the strike and dashed to the Hunter Killers right side and stabbed his sword halfway into its midsection. The Hunter Killer glanced back with a angered growl. Quickly adjusting his stance and twisting the blade horizontally Norman cut along the lower torso to the rear legs severing the rear right leg just below the pelvis joint.

The Hunter Killer roared as it leaped forwards running on three legs getting some distance but Norman wasn't having that as he sprinted after it. The Hunter Killer turned running along the circle of Zerg as the Terran chased after it. Norman attempted a slash at the Hunter Killers but just missed it as the Hunter Killer raised its rear half and planted its front legs into the ground allowing it to pivot on a dime bringing both it's bladed arms down on Norman. There was a echoing *CLANG* as the six psi-claws clashed against the single psi-blade.

The Hunter Killer growled baring its fangs as it brought its head closer to the struggling Spartan his knees bent and arms strained to keep the weight of the Hunter Killer from shifting giving it the opening to strike. Any movement from either of them could mean the end for one of them as the next move could decide the outcome of the duel. The Hunter Killer and Spartan continued to stare into each other's eyes for a brief few moments before Norman made up his mind to go with the flow.

Norman shifted his stance and legs and made his move. In a instant He dashed to his right sparks flying from the two psi weapons grinding against each other as he let the Hunter Killer fall forwards with all its weight. Digging his armored boots into the ground Norman dashed back making a upwards slash at the rear lower half just in front of the rear legs in the least armored point of the under belly. In a mere half second the Hunter Killer was cut in two as a spray of blood and gore coated Normans armor crimson.

The rest of the Spartans were all holding their collective breaths until they saw the Hunter Killer split in half. Letting out the held breath they let their mouths close taking another breath of recycled air.

"Ha I did it," Norman exclaimed as he held his psiblade up in triumph.

"Uh Norman it's still alive!" Mimi shouted.

Norman looked over to see the Hunter Killer standing up on its two front legs while leaning on one of it's clawed arms staring unmovingely at him.

"Oh! OF course right. Zerg" Norman exclaimed with a sigh. "Ok let's finish this."

* * *

 **With Zavara**

The elite brood queen grinned as she saw her Hunter Killer severely injured by the Terran in a single stroke.

"Hmm. Interesting. Just what I would have expected from a Spartan... Maybe it's time I increased the intelligence of my elite breeds. The Hunter Killers are just below the Queens when it comes to self awareness. Maybe a few elites among the elites maybe," Zavara mused to herself as she then turned her awareness to the Locust following a unit of hovering armored tanks and APCs approaching the Spartans position. "Reinforcements. I suppose it's time to move on to the next battle."

Zavara then ordered the group of Zerg inside the cliff side to come out to play.

* * *

 **Back with Obsidian platoon**

Norman took another stance to attack but as he did a Ultralisk exploded through the cliff face along with a few dozen Ravagers and Impalers creating a flood of debri and dust that blew through the box canyon. As the Zerg and Spartans were enveloped by the cloud of dust the Spartans switched to multi-spectrum mode for their visors cutting through the dust. Norman was partly relived as he saw the Hunter Killer was gone (burrowed away) along with the rest of the lesser Zerg but the Ultralisk and its friends were quickly approaching.

Hamilton opened a comm channel to command. "Uh Command we need backup, NOW!"

*BOOM*BANG*BOOM* Suddenly multiple explosions rocked the Ultralisk and its formation of Impalers and Ravagers as the Spartans looked up at their reinforcements as they drove over the cliff side. Their antigrav engines flaring as they were pushed to their limits to slow the armored units descent. Every time one of them fired mid air the recoil knocked them back a few meters. Normally such a tactic would be suicide but since all the vehicles had hover engines all they had to do in over charge them a little to lessen the fall speed allowing them to land relatively softly in the Box canyon right behind the Zerg forces.

[Keep firing! don't let up for anything,] Stinger 4s unit leader shouted over the coms.

The armored cavalry maintained their fire rate and in a successive series of heavy weapons blasts eliminated half the Ravagers and Impalers in a continues barrage of rockets, machine guns, gatling pods, grenade, and heavy rail cannon fire. After being blasted in the back the Ultralisk finally turned around to face the new threats only to be hit with concentrated fire from the Scorpion tanks. Each blast of hyper velocity shells created scars and cracks in its armor but the Ultralisk was built to take such hits (for a time) and returned fire shooting its own spines back.

Struck midair by heavy spines from the Ultralisk, two Mastodon APC's exploded just before they could land. Even more anti-armor spines from the Impalers ripped through the cavalry forces as artillery glaives from the Ravagers exploded in the air as they were shot down before they could hit.

The Terran and Zerg heavy forces continued to exchange fire with each side taking losses. Impalers upper bodies exploded. Ravagers were ripped to shared's in a hail gatling gun pod fire. Grenades detonated all over stunning the Zerg. Mastodons were disabled and fell to the ground as their hover engines took too much damage. The Ultralisk charged into the middle of the Cavalry formation swinging its Kaiser blades only for the armored Terran vehicles to split into two groups hover sliding left and right easily evading the much slower Ultralisk.

Stinger 4 ordered all forces to focus fire on the Ultralisk. The guns and turrets of the whole cavalry force quickly rotated and fired blasting the Ultralisk from both sides. Despite being stunned and severely injured the Ultralisk powered through the pincher barrage and into open ground. Stinger 4 then ordered for everyone to return fire on the Impalers and Ravagers who were still attacking them. The armored cavalry closed their formation again and charged at full speed as they continued firing. Scorpion tanks rammed into Ravagers pushing them back along the ground as the Zergs legs strained against the hover engines thrust. Mastodons rammed Impalers knocking them out of the way or grinding them under their armored frame's.

The Spartans of Obsidian platoon watched on as the armored cavalry all slowed a down before reaching the rock formation and turned around even as they continued to fire at the Zerg.

Stinger 4 popped the hatch of his Scorpion and waved at the Spartans. "Anyone call for a ride."

"About time," Norman stated as the rest of the Spartans started dropping down behind him.

"Move it people we need to get out of here," Hamilton yelled as he picked up a body and jumped off the rock formation and boarded one of the Mastodon APC's.

By then the Ultralisk and the rest of the Zerg heavy units had turned around and started raining a hail of Spines and glaives upon the retreating Terran forces but few hit their intended targets as the hovercrafts made a new path out of the box canyon by literally driving oe hovering up the near vertical cliff side swerving around the protruding rock formations as they went up. The drivers stepped on the gas accelerating even faster. Each vehicle swerving side to side as the rock face exploded in puffs of smoke from the impacts of dozens of spines and glaives.

Higher and higher they climbed until they reached the top and each vehicle disappeared from the Zergs sight as they crested the top and reached open ground.

In the back of a Mastodon APC Mimi, Norman, Janie and others rested from their mission of searching out and marking the underground Zerg hives. Nearly out of ammo, exhausted and without their captain. Everyone wanted to rest up but they all had a nagging thought in the back of their head. Something only one of them voiced.

"*Sigh*, So who wants to tell commander Irving that there's a super zerg underground," Mimi asked as everyone moned and sighed. 'Really. Ok guess I'll tell her then."

Meanwhile in another APC Hamilton leaned back resting his head on the wall of the APC and took in the moment of calm to fully relax as his mission was just about over. After taking in a deep breath he looked to the floor where the body of captain Neilson rested.

A hour later the most of the remaining members of Obsidian platoon had hit the showers and relaxed getting real food in their bellies and not those bland field rations. While others had to report what they found underground.

* * *

 **Gamme base Commander center briefing room.**

Aliasse stood along the edge of the room waiting for a moment before turning around as the door opened. Four Spartans from Obsidian platoon entered. One a large man with a regulation haircut (Hamilton), another a younger male Darcsen with slicked back hair (Norman) and two women one with dark pink hair (Mimi) and the other with dark skinned lass with a scar down the left side of her face (Janie).

They all saluted Aliasse and Hamilton handed over a date chip containing the collective recordings from all the Spartans from Obsidian platoons mission. All the combat cameras installed into every UNSC soldiers helmet has a auto update routine that links and copies all the recordings together into one single compressed data file that's shared between every helmet or Dragonfly scout so even if only one soldier gets back to base the fates of all the troops and their perspectives can be analyzed.

Taking the date chip Aliasse sighed. "I see. Sorry about captain Neilson."

She then walked over to the control terminal and inserted the chip into a terminal. The lights dimmed and wall screen blinked on showing first person perspective of Obsidian platoon getting into the elevator shaft built into the Nydus worm corpse. The name tag of the camera perspective said lieutenant Mimi Rose.

 **/Data file flashback start/**

"Ugh waiting is so boring. Why didn't they build more then one elevator?" Mimi exclaimed.

A man's voice replied making the name Norman blink on the upper right of the hud along with a abbreviated rank. "Because if we built any more the Zerg could have detected the activity."

The camera turned left to show Norman in his Mjolnir armor holding a ARC-920 with three red claw like markings on his armors shoulder plates.

"Ok I understand that, but taking its so slow they could spot us anyway I mean what if a Overseer fly's overhead or a Locust spots us."

Another voice female this time spoke, coming from the Spartan in front. The hud blinked with the name Janie and her rank. "I don't think we have to worry about that. The fly boys and girls in the fleet are keeping any Zerg flyers far enough away so that they can't spot us and the same can be said for the Locust." Janie gestured off into the distance as a lose swarm of Dragon fly's surrounded them in a large mile wide formation. The Dragonfly's were few and far inbetween but all of them formed a defense network of anti Locusts guards.

Mimi made a sigh as she moved up in the line. Janie and Norman boarded the elevator and descended. The camera perspective changed to Normans in the elevator. The world vibrated as the walls moved up from the perspective of the two Spartans in the elevator as it descended rapidly at a velocity that would have injured or killed a normal Terran.

A moment of silence passed.

"So you single," Janie asked.

Turning to face her Norman exclaimed. "What!"

Janie turned to face him. "What you gay?" she replied.

"Uuuuh no. Im a normal guy. So im into girls," Under his helmet Norman was blushing at the out of nowhere question.

"Ok. I swing both ways," Janie stated making Norman do a double take to process that bit of information.

"Uh can we have a normal conversation please or just quit while were in here."

Janie sighed. "Ok fine. Buzz kill."

There was a few minutes of silence between the two of them before they started to slow and reached the bottom of the shaft. The elevator shook violently before it stopped and the doors opened into a tunnel with over two dozen Spartans crouched along the walls weapons at the ready.

Norman started to say something but then remembered that everything he does and says is being recorded so he saved it for later off the record.

The Spartans waited in silence until the last of them arrived. The elevator returned again and the last pair got off.

"Aw man this stuff again!," Grumbled Mimi Rose as she stepped off the makeshift elevator and onto the Creep floor with her thirty nine other fellow Spartans.

"Suck it up. We have a mission to complete," stated Hamilton Honeysett as he kneeled by the wall holding a heavy machine gun.

"Lay off man anyone would feel uncomfortable in this place," Norman interjected.

"Fine whatever..." Hamilton replied turning his sight back down the living tunnel.

Captain of Obsidian platoon Esmond Neilson stood up at the front of thirty nine other Spartans and gave one last sigh of reservation before they began their mission. "Ok people this is what we trained for. We're the elite of the first gen Spartans and that's why we're here so lets get those coordinates to the fleet so they can level the hives down here and we can get back up to the surface. Remember to use those Dragonfly's to scout the area in front of you before continuing onwards. The last thing we need is to raise the Zerg's alarm before we even found their underground hive clusters. Now if everyone's ready switch to silent maser com's (short range line of sight laser in their armor) and lets begin operation bunker buster."

After that the Spartans split up into four smaller squads of ten each as they scattered and ran at a brisk pace through the tunnels. Groups of the robotic Dragon fly's flew high near the ceiling as they traveled through the tunnels far ahead of the rest of the Spartan squads. The Dragon fly's scouted the tunnels for any Zerg as the Terran super soldiers moved forwards. Soon after squad 4 the one that Mimi Rose, Hamilton, Norman and Janie was apart of reached their first major obstacle which turned out to be a few dozen Zerglings and six Hydralisk guarding a intersection of four tunnels.

"So what now?" Janie asked their squad leader Hamilton.

"Hmm. We can't take them out without alerting any nearby Zerg so..."

Hamilton using his neural link sent out some Dragon fly's ordering them to split up so one could go down each of the tunnels and scout them all at once. The tunnels extended for hundreds of meters two, ending in dead ends while the last one had a closed organic door at its end. Hamilton had the other Dragon fly's regroup with the one at the door and together they started probing the living door for anyway to open it. After a few moments of searching with their bio sensors the Dragon fly's found a nerve bundle that was linked to the muscles that open and lock the doors.

After a few minutes of cutting into the wall the Dragon fly's used their built in taser in their neosteel mandibles to trigger the nerve. With a fleshy squelching noise the doors parted revealing a giant chamber beyond that housed a single large Hive and other important Zerg structures along with a large number of Drones and what looked like larger alpha versions of them going about their work bringing materials to the Hive from who knows where.

As the Dragon fly's flew into the chamber the control signal started to weaken so Hamilton switched them to autonomous stealth observation mode. The Dragon fly's under their own directives hid on the ceiling and watched the Zerg until the Spartans picked them up.

Hamilton turned back to his team who were keeping their professional demeanor despite just standing around. "Ok we'll take the left passage. Get ready to move out quickly when the Zerg are out of the way."

Hamilton pulled a silver and orange grenade out from his C shaped ammo pack attached around his waist which was used to hold extra ammo and grenades.

Norman noticed the odd silver and orange grenade."What kind of grenade is that?"

Hamilton just smiled under his helmet and glanced back. "ONI tech. Don't ask again."

He pulled the pin and thosed the ONI tech around the corner at the guards. The grenade made a wet smack as it landed on the creep. The Hydralisk reacted aiming all their heads at the metal object but then started to slither away with the Zerglings quickly following as they recognized it as a grenade and instinctively acted to evade the blast. But what came wasn't a explosion but a pulse of scrambled psionic waves signals that made all the Zerg freeze in place and just go limp as if they became sleepy and weak all of a sudden.

"What the...," Norman started.

"Hell?" Mimi finished as the both of them leaned out from behind Hamilton.

"Lets move we don't have much time," Hamilton exclaimed as he and the others quickly ran passed the drowsy looking Zerg. Hamilton made sure to pick up the grenade as he passed it not wanting the Zerg to take it.

After jogging around on the sticky creep for what seemed a good half hour the squad reached the bio door leading to the Hive chamber. Hamilton had some Dragon fly's fly off and land in the regenerated part of the wall that covered the nerve cluster that opens the door.

Norman just had to ask. "Ok quick question what the H,E double hockey sticks was that."

Mimi continued, "And why haven't we been mass producing it if it does THAT to Zerg?"

While the dragon fly's worked cutting open the nerve cluster again Hamilton turned around to the questioning Spartans quickly recognizing they were all giving him the same look a curious kid would despite the armor. Hamilton Sighed deciding it may cause trust issues later if he doesn't say something. "Fine. It's a psionic scrambler that Oni created after experimenting on captured Zerg."

Norman and Mimi glanced at each other then back to Hamilton. "And where did ONI get said Zerg may I ask?" Mimi said.

"Remember the scouting missions that ONI conducted after that civilian ship the Enterprise discovered that Zerg were here."

The rest of the squad all made a collective "OH," realising the answer.

Just then the Doors opened revealing the underground hive cluster. The Spartans of squad 4 made their way from support column to support column keeping close to the walls. Luckley for them the Hive structures were facing away from them so the Drones were all on the other side of the structures.

As the ten Spartans held position at the Hives back Hamilton recalled the Dragon fly's still perched on the ceiling. The hand sized bots flew down to Spartans and hovering obediently over them continuing their job as observers and scouts.

The team quickly did their job and planted a beacon at the base of the Hive.

* * *

 **With Captain Esmond Neilson's team.**

Four Dragon fly's flew a orbital beacon up to the top of a Lair and jammed it into the a fleshy part activating the Beacons adhering system sticking the device to it's target. The Dragonfly's flew across the cavern over the heads of hundreds of Zerg milling about the area. Zerglings play fought and growled at each other almost like dogs as they chased and played around the more relaxed Hydralisk. But the majority of the chamber was filled by cocoons growing new Zerg. The group of Dragon fly's reached the open door continuing down the hall a from there flew a few hundred meters through the tunnels before reaching Captain Neilson and his team.

"What do you think?" Captain.

Captain Neilson thought in silence concerning the large group of new Zerg about to be hatched. "We can't endanger the mission, We move on to the next Hive cluster."

With their course of action decided the squad of ten moved out. Using the Dragon fly's to act as their eyes and ears in the tunnel's around them the Spartans continued through the complex network of tunnels until reaching a massive tunnel at least a hundred meters in diameter with a upper balcony along both sides of the tunnel and a lower level in the center that was filled with many large blood vessel like tubes that extended off into the distance in both directions.

The tubes pulsated from a network of ringed muscles in them that pushed liquids through them at a steady pace. Captain Neilson studied the structure and looked down both directions of the tunnels before scanning the tubes with his Mjolnir armors sensors which detected heavy concentrations of minerals which flowed to his right, the Captain then made a decision.

"This stuff is going somewhere. So let's find out where it leads to and what the Zerg are doing with it."

"What about the mission?" Neilsons second in command asked.

"We can finish the mission by following the tubs. I think they are connected to the under ground Hive clusters."

"I understand. We can find more Hive clusters if we follow the tubes branching pathways."

Captain Neilson nodded. "Exactly. Lets move out."

With a increased pace Captain Neilsons group quickly made their way through the cavern. After running for what seemed like many hours and planting more beacons in ten more hive clusters they finally reached a wall that the tubes continued through. Luckily there was a locked door on the same upper balcony that they were on and after some prodding from the Dragon fly's the door opened. As the captain and his team walked through they entered the largest room they've ever seen or been in. It had a domed ceiling and was at least a mile across with a single massive green cocoon that took up most of the chamber. It had a web of dark blood vessels across and in its membrane which seemed to glow from the inside.

[Well shit, THAT can't be good,] Norman exclaimed his words being transmitted through the maser com to Captain Neilsons team.

Captain Neilson and his team looked around for the source of the transmission knowing that it needed a direct line of sight to be received and was used in place of radio transmissions because they travel in all direction and could be intercepted or give away their presence to the Zerg sensitive to such energy waves. Then they spotted a upper level balcony that overlooked the chamber as their huds inducated two Spartans named Janie and Norman. Zooming in with his helmets camera Captain Neilson caught sight of two armored figures standing at the edge of the balcony and made a maser lock onto them.

"Team four do you read me. This is Captain Neilson of squad 1. Do you copy?"

 **With team 4**

[Team four do you read me. This is Captain Neilson of team one. Do you copy?]

"Huh captain?" Norman spoke as he looked around.

"What is it?" Janie asked standing to his right.

"I just got a transmission from the captain. They must be close by!"

[Down to your left Lieutenant.]

Norman and Janie looked down to the lower level to their left where off in the distance their huds picked up the maser IFF signals of their fellow Spartans. Zooming in a little they spotted ten tiny armored figures off in the distance crouched down beside the massive cocoon.

[Lieutenants Norman and Janie what is your squads statues?] Captain Neilson asked.

"Were all fine up here captain." Norman turned behind himself. " Hay Hamilton the captains down below get over here."

"What! where?" Hamilton replied as he jogged over to the edge of the chitin balcony as Norman pointed to the other Spartan team down on the lower level.

"Captain Neilson i'm glad to have met back up with you. But what do we do about this thing? it looks like a Behemoth cocoon but why grow one in such a confined place? It doesn't look like the roof opens."

There was a pause as the captain thought the question over himself. [No idea. Unless the Zerg grow them underground and have them warp their way out? However i'm not a expert on how Zerg FTL works so i'm just guessing.]

"What if it's another new type of Zerg," Mimi interjected following behind Hamilton. Her words reaching Team 1 by the transmission transfer that sent the massage from one Spartans armor to any another in range.

"I don't think we should put much thought into what this thing is." Norman stated. "After all if it was important wouldn't there be guards around?"

As he heard the lieutenants thoughts Captain Neilson suddenly had a frightening realization. Where were the guards? Even in a place like this they should have found at least a few Zerg around. After all they've been evading direct contact with Zergling patrols and Hydralisk guards since they got underground. If it weren't for the Dragon fly's they would have run right into the first patrol they came across and their mission and lives would have come to an end as a flood of zerg ripped them apart.

 **"Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly..."** the voice echoed in the Spartans minds as they went on guard.

The Spartans of both teams one and four raised their weapons as the unknown telepathic voice that spoke in their minds.

 **"...It's been a long time since I've had any guest's. I've been board looking after this new child. So..."**

Just then a alpha Queen as big as a african elephant erupted out from the ground right below team one knocking most of them to the ground. Captain Neilson turned around to aim at the Zerg queen only for his weapon to be batted away like a toy as it fired. Captain Neilson grunted in pain as a pair of clawed hands wrapped around him and lifted up like a child lifted by by their parents. The alpha queen skittered away with the Captain on all six of her legs eventually pinning the Captain to the side of the massive cocoon.

 **"Let's play little Terrans."**

"Captain!" Hamilton shouted as he and the others of team 4 aimed at the Alpha Queen only for a series of spines to impact their Mjolnir armor from behind. Team 4 turned to their assailant's to see seven Hunter Killers in V formation stampeding at them from across the room at full speed. "Take'em out quick."

All ten members of team 4 fired at the Hunter Killers hyper velocity rounds slammed into the Hunter Killers injuring two and killing one. The rest of the elite zerg evaded the oncoming fire by changing their formation and movement patterns into a coordinated zig zag in between the support columns as they continued towards the Spartans. The barrage of hyper velocity shots from the Spartans ARC-920 rifles continued striking their targets in less then 1/10 of a second blowing off arms and legs. The crippled Hunter Killers made easy targets and were brought down as some of the others continued their charge and while others stayed behind cover so snipe at distance but when the remaining Hunter killers saw that their spines weren't doing anything to the Terrans they switched targets to the Terrans weapons.

Obsidian platoons team 4 continued shooting as spines bounced off their psi-plated armor but soon some of the Spartans weapons were rendered useless as spines pierced into them forcing the Spartans to switch to their back up heavy machine guns. The roar of heavy gun fire echoed through the chamber as hundreds of armor piercing rounds ripped into the Hunter Killers armor but unlike the ARC rifles couldn't do devastating damage in one hit. One Hunter Killer reached the Spartans and brought down its clawed arms only for the armored Terran to duck out of the way.

The Spartan rolled out of the way and aimed at the Hunter Killers back legs. Rounds ripped into the armor and flesh of the rear legs bringing the beast down. Another Spartan finished the downed Zerg off with two shots to the head and three to the body.

 **With Captain Neilson**

The captain gagged as the clawed hand of the Alpha Queen gripped his torso and no matter how he struggled he couldn't move his arms arms. The alpha Queen was just as strong if not more so than him even after the augmentations. But he didn't give up freeing a arm and grabbing his side arm and shot right into the Queens armored face. *Bang*bang*bang* Three shots rang out as the slugs hit their target. The Alpha Queen roared in pain and growled in annoyance as she threw the Terran like a rag doll and held her face as the wounds healed. Taking the opportunity the Spartans of team 1 fired a full barrage at the distracted Alpha Queen chipping off chunks of her thick armor and blasting rounds through the less armored torso.

In another pained roar the Alpha Queen burrowed and healed as team one reformed a defensive circle around their captain.

"You ok sir," the team medic asked as he linked his suit to captain Neilsons getting the mans biometric scan indicating he didn't have any serious wounds other then brushing on his body from the queens ironclad grip.

 **"Ahaha. That hurt. But not good enough Terrans."**

As team 1 watched every direction for the queen a long armored hand punched through the ground and grabbed one Spartan by the leg and dragging him down into the ground up to the man's waist. "Gah ah it's got me."

Quickly the two other Spartans to the man's left and right grabbed his arms and fired their weapons down into the ground and after expending half their clips the armored hand let go retracting back into the ground.

"Damn that was close."

Before team 1 could get their wits back the Alpha queen erupted out from the ground far away from them and immediately was fired upon. Ignoring the gun fire smashing through her armor and body the Queen raised one of her hands and formed a psi-blast orb while making a sinister fanged smile. Captain Neilson cursed under his breath warning his men to scatter just before the blue orb of death was launched at them. The psi-blast orb flew with frightening speed reaching the spot where the Terrans elite soldiers stood a mere second a go.

*KA!BOOM!*

The detonation of psionic energy created a shock wave that blasted the Spartans of squad 1 twenty meters away in different directions from the epicenter of the explosion, knocking a few out for a bit and stunning others. The Alpha Queen confidently walked towards the staggered Terrans as they tried standing up shaking their heads as the world felt like it was spinning while they tried to get to their feet. As one Spartan got up the Queen casually grabbed him lifting him up and with one extended clawed finger impaled the Spartan right in between his shoulder armor. The man grunted in pain but soon stopped gritting his teeth as he stared back at the monster holding him up like a toy.

"I'ed spit on you if I didn't have a helmet on. Gh! so take this."

The Spartan kicked the Queen in the face and reached for his psi-blade on his back only for the arm to be grabbed mid swing and twisted in a unnatural way until the joint popped. He let out a pained shout dropping the blade.

"Carl!" a member of Team one shouted as they fired at the Queen blasting craters out of the constantly regenerating armor. Soon after the other Spartans of team 1 got back on their feet and joined in shooting the oversized target but the Queen just roared as she threw the man named Carl into one of his fellow Spartans knocking them both back twenty feet. Now angered the queen extended her own bone wings and charged her body up with her psionic energy.

The Zerg queens body glowed with inner light and started shooting spines at the Terrans, hitting with pinpoint accuracy. The psi-armor enhancement of the spines cancelled out the psi-plating of the Spartans armor allowing them to pierce a few inches through the Spartans armor. The spines dug into their bodies, arms and legs breaking bone and opening blood vessels. The injuries were enough to knock a few Spartans out of the battle as their suits onboard life support and nanomachines healing systems kicked in to seal the arteries stop the fatal bleeding and mend the bone, flesh and organs.

But the Spartans weren't just going to sit down and do nothing. With fainted breath the rest of team one started jerking the spines out by hand so the wounds would heal faster. The thousands of backwards facing micro hooks on each spine made the action extremely painful but at that point the Spartans were partly swimming in combat stimulation drugs that not only dulled their pain but also increased their mental focus.

The Queen grabbed another Spartan with both hands and started to slowly twist the upper and lower torso in opposite directions making the man scream as his body was contorted in a unnatural way.

"Let him go," captain Neilson yelled as he picked up Carls fallen blade and in one stroke sliced off the alpha queens arm.

The arm and the Spartan fell as the Queen roared in pain reflexively swinging her wing blade. Captain Neilson barely deflected the quick attack and the force behind it knocked him backwards. Landing in a role he quickly got to his feet and shot daggers at the queen who was doing the same at him. Neilson assessed the situation, they were deep in enemy territory and had most like sounded the alarm. He decided on a choice of action.

"Everyone Im giving the order to pull out. Teams 1 and 4 get the wounded out of here. I'll hold off the queen. And that's a order now move," Captain Neilson charged the queen blocking a swing of her wing blades. He spread out his legs bending the knees reducing the force of the blow.

"That all you got." Neilson taunted as he counter attacked ducking low and drawing a cut right across the queens waist leaving a rather large cut in her armor but smaller than what he thought it should have been.

The rest of team 1 made their way out of the cocoon chamber and ran up a spiral ramp to the upper level where team 4 was.

"We have to get out of here," Stated Hamilton as he's now the ranking officer in charge now.

"What about the captain?!"

Without any emotion Hamilton replied. "We follow his orders and get out of here."

No one wanted to leave the captain but it would be stupid to waste their lives to disobey his orders and try and save him with more Zerg on the way.

Janie watched the live date stream map on her hud that the dragon fly's had created while the Spartans had entered the cocoons chamber and saw that more Zerg were on the way coming from nearly every direction. "Shit we got more Zerg on the way lots of them."

"Anyway out and to the surface?."

Janie checked the map along with the other Spartans trained in controlling the dragon fly's and found a few options but comparing the maps of the surface and the map of the underground Zerg tunnels they found one option that would take them to the preplanned extract point near a box canyon. As they made their way to the extract point to the surface Norman glanced back a moment before following after the others.

*Clang* Captain Neilson blocked another bladed wing strike then another and another before charging in ducking below the next strike and rolled landing inside the Queens defenses. Putting all his strength and weight into the thrust and aiming for a spot between the armor plates he pierced a half foot into the Alpha Queens abdomen. But the Queen had took the hit by purpose bringing her clawed hands up into spade shapes she pierced dowards to behead the Terran only for him to roll away at the last instant getting only a minor scrape on his armor.

 **"Gah hold still."** The Alpha queen projected as she skittered after the Captain who was running in a dead sprint around the curved chamber. **"Die"** The Alpha queen yelled firing spines at the Spartan. Captain Neilson spun around blocking the projectiles with his wide blade.

"That all," He taunted more but the queen wasn't falling for it again and just stared at him slowly getting closer.

"Are you getting all this trouble from one Terran Medusa."

The Alpha Queen named Maduse stopped in her tracks as both she and Captain Neilson looked over to see the form of a seven foot tall black armored winged and tailed humanoid Brood Queen walking towards them with a feminine sway to her walk and a predatory glar to her eyes. Her dark armored body shimmering in the dim bio light as she approached the Terran and Queen. Captain Neilson diverted his attention from the new comer for only a moment to notice the horde of other Zerg surrounded him on all sides.

 **"Ah! Master Zavara."** Medusa greeted with a bow.

"Hmph. I'm surprised you Terrans took the risk to come down here. I thought you would have just attacked with a orbital strike from your fleet," Zavara stated as she stared at the lone Spartan.

Seeing that he didn't have anything to lose him selfe but instead could gain time for his men to escape Neilson replied talking in slow gapes enough to lengthen the conversation but not slow enough that it wouldn't seem too suspicious.

"Ha... well if we can't see...*gah* what were shooting at *ga* what's the... *gasp* point. Huh."

Zavara smiled seeing through the man's ploy but decided to have bit of fun. "What's your name Terran?"

"Captain. Captain Esmond Neilson."

"Well mister Neilson how about we play a little game. Interested?"

Not knowing where this was going and wanting to continue buying time the Captain accepted. "What's in it for me?"

"Do you really think that your men can escape the underground. We are the swarm. Many as one." Captain Neilson gritted his teeth at his attempted at buying time had been seen through. "How's this then. If you can defeat Medusa here I'll let your men get to the surface before chasing after them."

Stunned captain Neilson shook his head in disbelief as he looked Zavara in the eyes. "Are you really going to do that? Why should I believe you?"

Zavara just grinned again. "What would it matter to play my game or not. Die by them." Zavara gestured towards the horde around her. "Or die by her."

Medusa seemed to puff out her chest at the opportunity to honor the master and finish off the Terran. "Say the word master Zavara and I'll rip him apart."

Sighing at the lack of a real choice Captain Neilson took the offer. "Fine I'll fight by your rules."

"Good." Zavara said walking in between the two combatants. "Now show me a what a the both of you can do."

Zavara raised her right hand glancing left and right as Neilson took a natural sword stance, while Madusa flexed her wing blades and cracked her neck side to side claws bared to rend flesh. Zavara dropped her hand leaping backwards and out of the cross fire as the fight started. As the fight started the Brood queen turned her head left and up to the Dragonfly was perched along the wall watching and recording.

The battle continued as Medusa slashed at the much smaller spartan but Neilson expertly dodged the attacks and dashed around Medusa's side slashing at her legs. The tip of one was cut clean through in one strike. Medusa roared in pain as she kicked with another leg knocking Neilson backwards. Medusa started shooting a barrage of spines only to miss as the Terran ducked and slid under her. Neilson slashed at Medusa leg joints and jumped out from under the Alpha Queen as Medusa dropped to the ground unable to support her own weight. Not wasting time Neilson jumped on Medusas back and ran along it to strike her head directly.

Knowing this Medusa extended her wing blade and twisted her torso but missed as Neilson jumped and landed right on her head. Neilson raised the sword to impale the Queens head but a simple shake through him off. Grabbed onto the nearest thing ne tugged on one of Meduses tendrils that grew out from the side of her head. The Spartans weight pulled on the sensitive organ and caused shocking pain to shoot through Meduses body forcing her to move to lessen the pain bringing her head and Neilson closer to the ground.

As his feet landed on the Creep Neilson pulled more on the tendril as he plunged his sword into Meduses neck and gripping with both hands drew the sword across cutting through half Medises neck. Meduse sensing the seriousness of the situation raised her body up out of reach again but Neilson seeing that everything he just done could be undone in just a few moments of regenerating continued his attack. In one leap he reached high enough to plunge the sword into Meduses chest and in a quick swing of his legs and body flipped on top the blade. Meduse reached to grab the Spartan but just as her hand closed in around him he jumped up and plunged his arm into the still healing neck wound. It was at that moment he was grabbed by Medusa and flailed around like a ragdoll slamming him into the ground a couple of times before she threw him into the wall full force. (Think Hulk toshing Loki around from the avengers movie)

The impact instantly knocked him out but a few moments later Neilson regained consciousness thank to the combat stim drugs. Shakingly he got up as the life support system of his armor blared warning signals concerning a broken leg(the one Medisa grabed) crushed ribs(almost all of them), a dislocated shoulder(from the impact with the wall), damaged organs(again almost all of them) and a puncture to both his lungs from said broken ribs.

Medusa roared again as she charged at him to finish the Spartan off but at that moment Neilson activated his remote detonation system in his armor and with his arm made a gesture like holding a gun and fired the imaginary bullet. In that instant Meduses neck exploded as the two grenades Neilson had planted in the open wound detonated decapitating the Alpha Queen in a bloody and gory blast.

"Ha I win," With those finally words Neilson collapsed in a bloody mess in his own armor.

Zavara walked over to Neilsons body and rolled him on to his back. Studying the damage she quickly saw he was dead but he had won so she will keep her promise.

"Your body can return to you comrades but... that armor. I would like to study it in detail."

After disconnecting the armor plates from the inner black bodysuit and placing them in the hands or claws of a Drone Zavara picked up Neilsons body and grabbed that Terran Dragonfly before leaving. The Drone left, taking the pieces of Mjolnir armor and the psi-sword to the nearest Maw of the Swarm portal and from their back to a evolution master in a safe star system.

 **With Obsidian platoons teams 1 and 4.**

Hamilton and the rest of Obsidian platoones teams 1 and 4 raced through the living labyrinth of tunnels and chambers making their way to a preplanned extraction point where the rest of their platoon should be at or making their way to after some of the Dragon fly's they had were sent out to relay the message to the others two teams. But weather or not they get the message was only a 70/30% against in the underground maze that stretched on for who knows how far. But it wasn't zero.

After a hour of running and the nineteen Spartans finally reached the Nydus worm that should get them to the surface but many of the Spartans were hesitant to get in.

"Im not getting in that thing!" A Spartan exclaimed as Hamilton took out a short rod that extended into a long rod and jammed it into the side of the Nydus tunnel opening.

"Aww come on it's not that bad. A little slimy maybe but..." Norman said trying to playcat the man's fear.

Meanwhile some of the others were talking. "I hope the others are on their way."

"If we made it then they should have too. If they got the message to retreat that is."

"Yeah... that's just it."

"What?"

"We didn't encounter a single Zerg on our way here!"

That realization made everyone stop and think. Why had they not encountered any patrols or guards. They should have at least have been ambushed after encountering that Alpha Queen and those Hunter Killers.

"Something's not right here why would the Zerg just let us go like that? they know were down here now?"

"I don't know and I don't care. Lets just get out of here."

A moment later the remaining two squads of twenty Spartans entered the detection range of the Dragon fly's setup on patrol in the nearby tunnels. The IFF detection signals were identified and the Spartans were greeted with open hands instead of gun fire as they rounded the corner and joined the rest of their brothers and sisters despite looking ragid with scrapes and dents in their armor.

"Oh damn it's good to see you guys," exclaimed a female Spartan.

"Glad to see you too." Mimi replied as she turned around. "What took you so long?"

The leader of Obsidian platoons team two sighed in a deep gruff voice. "Doing our mission. Finding Hive clusters and tagging them. Not easy with a army of the bastard's running around down here. Anyway why did Captain Neilson call for a evacuation?"

"What?" Janie exclaimed in surprise. Didn't you get the Dragonfly message from us to cancel the mission.

The leaders of team two and three glanced at each other a moment. "No Captain Neilson told us to leave buy a Dragonfly massager he sent to us."

Janie, Norman, Mimi and the rest of the Spartans that were there during the Alpha Queen encounter just gave each other looks of confusion(as much as they could with helmets on). As the Spartans were thinking a armored feminine form entered the detection range of a Dragonfly and the simulant drone sent a alert signal.

"Huh?" exclaimed one of the guard Spartans monitoring the Dragon fly's sensors. "People we got a problem," the high pitched tone of worry caught everyone's attention.

"What is it now?" asked. Norman.

As she walked through the living halls of the underground super hive cluster Zavara hefted the human who had lead the infiltration force's. He had won his battle against Medusa. Zavara rounded the corner where the Terrans were.

*Th,chink* lots a weapons raizing.

Without blinking the Brood Queen grinned at the wall of Spartans (some laying prone on the ground others kneeling and standing) All of whom had their weapons aimed at her head.

"Hello there."

"What do you want?" Hamilton asked.

Zavara kneeled down placing the body of Captain Neilson on the ground. The Spartans all had looks of confusion under their helmets at why a Zerg would kill the Captain and bring him back to them. Most of them just wanted to put a bullet into her head but everyone remained still as they still didn't know what was going on.

Hamilton looked down at captain Neilsons body, the armor plating had been removed leaving just the black bodysuit. "What happened to his armor?" Hamilton asked with a degree of hostility.

Zavara just stared at him. "We made a deal. He won a fight against the Alpha queen you were fighting against before. But died of his injuries after."

"What deal was that?"

Zavara turned around and started to leave her hips and tail swaying with every step. "To let you leave the underground." Zavara stopped and glanced back for a moment. "But once you get to the surface YOUR back on the menu."

Hamilton and the rest of Obsidian platoon watched in silence as the Brood queen left leaving all of them with more than a few thoughts of WTF at the situation.

"Huh so even Zerg can have honor," Mimi rose stated lowering her weapon. She quickly looked around her seeing that everyone else was looking at her. "What!?"

Hamilton just grunted as he lifted the body of his captain and walked back to the Nydus opening were the piece of ONI tech was manipulating the Nydus worm to allow them to reach a higher level if not the surface. "Lets go we need to get the map of the Zergs underground tunnels to the fleet. They can't start the orbital bombardment without it."

This little bit of information got some people asking questions. "Wait I thought we were down here to plant beacons on the hive clusters so the fleet could home in on them."

"That's true. But the backup plan was to map the tunnels so the AI's in the fleet could create a simulation of the super hive clusters underground network using the minimal amount of date."

"Date we created by running around down here like rats in a maze," Janie stated matter factly. "I suppose we were just escourt's for those Dragon fly's then."

"Fucking ONI spook." spat someone in the group.

Hamilton sighed. "Yes I'm from ONI. The Captain knew it and so did commander Irving."

Norman starting to get his feathers ruffled got in Hamilton's face. "We're the elite of the elite Spatans and ONI didn't think they could trust us with this bit of information."

Hamilton wasn't phased and just stared back at him. "We don't know if the Zerg can read minds. Or if our psi-screens can work if we get a parasite implanted in us. It was deemed to much a risk for everyone to know all the real details of this operation."

There was some agitated growling between them before Norman relented and backed off.

"Now if all your questions are done we need to complete our mission. So the Captains death wasn't for nothing."

 **/Data file flashback end/**

The video feed ended and the lights came back on.

"I see so thats what happened," Aliasse Irving acting commander of gamme base and its expansion base said with a sigh regretting the loss of captain Neilson. But considering that the mission could have ended with everyone dead it was a minor loss. "A minor loss?" Aliasse muttered under her breath, regretting the fact she had to think this way now. For a moment she wondered if Ellen has thoughts like this. But considering that the Zerg swarm is a group of mass produced bio weapons... maybe not. She'll have to ask next time the two of them have a talk.

"Ma'am," Hamilton said as he saluted the commander.

"Your all dismissed. Get some shut eye," Aliasse ordered.

"Uh Commander Irving may I ask a question." Mimi asked.

Aliassa turned to the Lieutenant. "Yes, what is it."

"I heard that the main Zerg fleet left shortly after that telepathic scream messed with everyone's heads. Is that true?"

"Yes it's true. That how the whole fleet has been assembled in orbit. But it's odd," Aliasse stated glancing down a moment.

"You mean that it's odd that the Zerg would just pull their main fleet forces out for no apparent reason leaving us with orbital control. And giving themselves a severhandy cape?"

Locking eyes with Hamilton Aliasse had a grim look on her face "That. And i'm worried about what could have happened that made them leave in the first place."

The possibility that there's a greater threat out there that forced the Zerg to recall their fleet forces form the Alpha Centauri campaign made everyone uneasy hoping that they never have to face it or at least not for along time.

 **In orbit. With the Infinity**

The bridge was abuzz with activity as the final preparations were being made for the orbital bombardment that will hopefully destroy most if not all of the Zerg swarms underground infrastructure which would not only reduce the casualties the UNSC suffers during this campaign but would also bring it to a end sooner.

"Captain im still wondering why we don't just hit their surface hive clusters along with the subsurface ones," asked Athena as her hologram blinked on.

Captain Pesaro yawned taking a sip of the coffee in hand. "Athena. The purpose of the Zerg's presence in the Alpha Centauri system is to test if the Terran civilisation is ready to spread out into the rest of the galaxy. And to test our character as a species based on how we fight and conduct ourselves in war. If we just relied on our technology and machines all the time instead of thinking and fighting ourselves, with boots on the ground, then maybe in the future the swarm may just decide to force us back into our own system and keep us there because they see us as a brutal people who would do anything to win even blow up habitable Earth like planets just to spite the race that took it away from us. If we were like that then in the mind of the Swarm, or rather the Swarm Empress we would be greedy spoiled children without honor and not deserving of the right to explore beyond our own star system.

Athena processed this for a few milliseconds while watching the videos of the Swarm Empresses speeches from after the end of the first Zerg war. "If we are to truly survive and thrive as a species we must evolve to become stronger both mind, body and soul. And prove that we can be a people worthy of greatness not just capably of doing great things through our technology."

The Captain chuckled. "Hehe. Exactly. Now is the fleet in position?"

"Yes." Athena replied. "All ships are in their designated orbital paths. Admiral Stanthem and his fleet are arming their MAC cannons for the bombardment."

All across the main holo screens groups of ships in wadge formations tilted their noses downwards as the fleet readies for the attack on the underground sections of the Super hive cluster.

On the surface UNSC personnel went about their daily work. Workers offloaded cargo from Darters, Command staff monitored the area for Zeg activity using the network of Sensor towers while coordinated the construction of new buildings while thousands of simulant Drones mined the Creep fields and ground for minerals as others of their kind helped SCV's construct new buildings, vehicles, and more Simulant Zerg to bolster the Terran forces, and patrol the ground and air around the captured territory.

The combined fleet in orbit numbering the remaining majority of the UNSC fleet that entered the Alpha Centauri system angled their noses down activating their energy transfer system that shunts energy to the Mac cannons capacitors. The many gun barrels sparked with gathering energy as they started the loading sequence of the hive buster shells. Inside the guns large revolver gears turned and rotated bringing a shell into line with a MAC barrel as a piston pushed the special shell into the barrel and a seal closed, locking it into place with a reverberating thump of the maglocks.

 **Bridge of the Infinity**

Captain Pasaro watched the holo screen showing him the statues of the ships throughout the fleet. One after the other the ship's on screen changed color from orange to red indicating that the main MAC gun was armed and charged. Minutes passed as the fleet finished the procedure and every ship in the hundreds strong fleet was ready for the attack.

"Final aiming calibrations have been completed. Fleet is ready to fire captain," Athena reported.

It was at that moment that captain Pasaro really wanted one of the other higher ranking Admirals to make the decision for the fleet to fire. They were going to bombard a underground infrastructure of hundreds of lesser hives that were supporting the Zergs war effort on the surface. But it would also change the face of the planet as the continent would be fractured from the inside out by so many fusion bombs detonating in the planet's crust. Taking in a deep breath Pesaro checked that the fleet was targeting all the hive underground clusters surrounding the three landing zones and their expansion bases. Satisfied with the date he gave the order.

"I captain Pesaro of the fleet's flagship the Infinity gives the fleet the order..."With one last moment of hesitation knowing full well of the devastation he was going to unleash he gave the order. "Fire!"

In the soundless void of space, the bow's of countless ships aimed at the planet sparked with lightning and fire as they spewed forth a apocalyptic power in the form a hail of psionically reinforced neosteel shells accelerating from a standing position to hundreds of thousand's of kilometers a hour. For a few short milliseconds the shells glowed white hot as the friction with the atmosphere heated them up. A fraction of a second later a streaking rain of glowing drops impacted the surface puncturing the continent's crust like pincushion for a full ten seconds. The impact force from each strike kicked up many tons of dirt and debri. So much that it would block out the sky and sun for months to come.

The UNSC forces ground side all watched in awe as the glowing white rain landed off in the distance and stood in resolve as the clouds of dirt raised up into the sky. But then everyone on the continent felt it. The ground shook and the earth split as the Hive buster shells detonated vaporising the vast majority of the Swarms underground forces and caused a series of earthquakes that shifted and changed the shape of the continent creating massive splits in the ground that could rival the Grand canyon and craters big enough to build a small city in.

 **Chapter End.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

 **Rise of the Spartans part 8**

* * *

Two months have passed since the orbital bombardment devastated the continent and the super hive cluster's underground sections. In that time the UNSC has pushed further into Zerg territory establishing new bases and constantly fighting back the attacks of the Zerg.

Upon a open plain a large formation of UNSC tanks APC's and artillery hovered across the creep covered surface. Gliding over large holes and cracks large enough to swallow them. The earth split and collapsed into the many sinkholes and giant cracks created by the detonations of all the fusion warheads underground. The landscape looked like a vision of hell.

A tank driver surveyed the devastated landscape as his armored battalion neared their target point.

The surface of the planet was barley recognizably from what it once was. But despite the devastation the orbital bombardment did succeed in its purpose of greatly reducing the amount of zerg hive clusters and all the cracks and sinkholes that had opened up provided the Simulant zerg with many places to further infiltrate the Zergs surviving underground hives. For weeks battles underground raged as the Simulants battled their organic counterparts. Many never leaving the lightless underground battles but others returned to the surface for repairs and refits. Keeping the Zerg from rebuilding their underground hive clusters was the perfect job for the simulants, otherwise many Terrans lives would have to be sacrificed and many more orbital bombardments used to do the same job.

The armored battalion stopped near a cliff that was once solid ground but now dropped a good half kilometer down into a dark abyss. The artillery vehicles all locked themselves down anchoring to the ground. Everyone of them aimed their long range railguns towards the southwest taking and after taking a few moments to charge up their capacitors they all the artillery fired. A hail of self guided smart rounds accelerated from a resting state to a speed of Mach 9.6, or nearly 7,000 mph traveling a hundred miles in mere seconds. The artillery shells flew over the apocalyptic landscape of creep covered mountain's, lakes and Hive clusters remaining on the surface.

A hundred fifty kilometers from the armored battalion a massive battle was being fought atop a ten kilometer wide isolated island plateau which had remained after the surrounding land collapsed around it. A top the plateau fought tens of thousands of Zerg, one type of highly evolved flesh and bone while the other was chrome and computers. A fierce battle raged across nearly every square inch of the plateau as the two sides battled fiercely. Simulant Zerglings stood in formation with mini mac cannons mounted on their backs firing a barrage of hypervelocity projectiles that ripped through a group of Roach's serving as the front guard to a group of Hydralisks. With their shields gone the Hydralisk were attacked directly by their metal counterparts. Simulant Hydralisk fired hails of projectiles ripping them to pulped bits and hollowed out torso cavities.

Hordes of Zerglings unborrowed and attacked the neosteel Hydralisk only for many to be sliced to bits by their triple sickle like blade arms. But their numbers allowed the ones in the rear to finally overwhelm the metal Hydralisks enough for the Banelings to get into range. Hundreds of Green explosions rocked the plateau as the formation of Simulant Hydralisk melted from the super acid further improved since it's first creation. High in the air a formation of Orca heavy transports neared the plateau guarded by formations of Sparrowhawks. As soon as the Sparrowhawks were in range they fired a full missile barrage at any Zerg that could hit them, most being Hydralisk but the dozens of Impalers also unburrowed around the edges of the battlefield firing at their airborne enemies but all were quickly blasted by the Sparrowhawks missiles and nose mounted rail gun.

After any threats were delt with the Orcas quickly set down at the rearmost part of the plateau controlled by the Simulants, each transport releasing a simulant Ultralisk.

Each of the lumbering land behemoths moved to the front lines firing their heavy guns at the swarms of Zerg. Blasting large groups of Zerglings and Hydralisk into scattered pieces red paste. Reacting to the new threat multiple large groups of Roaches burrowed under the battlefield easily reaching the Ultralisks and started spraying the over sized targets with their acid and hacking at the weakened armor with their claws. Other Simulant Zerg moved to defend the Ultralisks but were intercepted by artillery Glaives launched from Ravagers in the rear lines who had only just now unborrowed. Bio explosions rocked the areas around the Simulants Ultralisk creating a defensive curtin of explosions that allowed the Roach's to attack unobstructed. In only four minutes the Simulant Ultralisks were reduced to smoldering melting metal heeps by the acid and claw of the Roaches.

This gave the Zerg the chance they had been waiting for as the entire Zerg force on the plateau charged. The momentum and numbers overwhelmed the Simulants at the front lines and the Zerg steamrolled over the defenders. The Simulants rear guard formed a new defensive line and waited for the Zerg to hit. Glaives rained down from the Ravagers blasting holes in the new defensive line as spines from the Hydralisk split armor and severed the black cnt muscle fibers of the Simulants. Then just before the two forces collided in melee range a hail of hypervelocity artillery shells rained down on the Zergs front center forces braking their cohesion and momentum, creating a opening. The Simulants all charged the confused and broken attack wave turning the tide of the battle once again. The barrage of the long range artillery fire continued as the explosive shells landing points slowly sweeped back crating a curtain of explosions that swept over any Zerg on the surface.

After a moment's confusion however the Zerg adapted and burrowed under the sweeping line of exploding shells attacking the Simulants again in a massive melee. Even so the rear lines of the Zerg forces were broken and before long the Queen incharge of this small force gave the order to retreat conserving as much of her forces as possible.

With the Zerg forces in full retreat the UNSC commander quickly sent in a full expansion force consisting of Six Orcas heavy transports. Four filled to the brim with Simulant drones and SCVs and the last two filled by Cyclops exosuits all armed to the teeth. After the first force helped the Simulants secure the plateau the rest of the expansion forces arrived. Hovering over the deep chasm around the lone plateau one Command center, four UNSC Air Pads, two Vehicle Factories's, two Field Armories, ten UNSC Barrack's and two Refineries arrived, all of them equipped with the same hover engines as the Command centers.

With this new system of large scale antigrav hover engines built into structures the UNSC can now quickly relocate the main facilities of a base quickly and easily. Allowing for the strategic and quick creation of more expansion bases or even if necessary retreat.

* * *

 **Gamma base command center**

Aliasse sat in her command chair sipping a cup coffee. As she watched one of the sub screens the 157th expansion base took shape on the plateau. The factories started producing more Cyclops and Simulants of differing types along with Goliath's to secure the new base. Once the new expansion base has mined enough local resources and built up it's own power base the force of Simulant's that took the plateau will leave continuing their push deeper into Zerg held territory.

"Boy we've been on a warpath none stop ever since the orbital bombardment," Said a young officer as he stretched his arms.

"Even so the Zerg have put up a crazy amount of resistance despite that and we've still taken many casualties from the ground campaign," said a female officer.

Aliasse or commander Irving to her command staff set her coffee down on the small table by her chair. "I have a feeling that the Zerg have been up to something ever since we landed on Alpha Centauri B."

The command staff all got worried looks at their commanders assumption. "What makes you say that commander Irving?"

"Because they've been fighting as equally as possible with our forces using tactics and maneuvering of their forces with Nydus worms. They have put up a strong resistance so far but not as strong as they could have. If they were using their full forces why didn't they rush the initial landing forces with overwhelming numbers instead of that weak attack?"

Aliasse's command staff thought amongst themselves a moment before one replied with a destressing theory. "What if they have been letting us push into their territory as apart of some larger plane that we haven't been able to see yet?"

Aliasse placed a hand to her chin deep in thought. It did sound like something Ellen would come up with and it sounded like a viable strategy. But if it relied on some trump card they were keeping hidden underground then it could have been destroyed unless it was in the core of the super hive cluster. That place had been the only area of the Superhive cluster to have protection from orbital attack as many Starfish appeared from underground and are now protecting the core of the super hive cluster. And also when recovery teams dug into the estimated location of that giant mile wide cocoon Obsidian platoon found on their mission there wasn't any trace of a body or remains of a new type of Zerg breed of any kind. Which only makes Aliasse all the more troubled by the cocoons missing contents. All she could do at the moment is sigh and wonder if their were any more of such mile wide cocoons.

"Whatever the truth is I have a feeling we'll see what it is soon enough. In the next four hours the G-zero and the main combined forces along with the Spartans will begin the assault of the central core of the super hive cluster."

* * *

 **Central core of Zerg super hive cluster on Alpha Centauri B.**

Within the core nerve center of the Hive cluster situated in the center of the superhive cluster or what remains of it. Brood Queen Zavara sat atop her chitin throne mentally surveying her remaining forces through the hive mind. She smiled at the arrogant Terrans efforts to conquer her forces. It had been an enlightening experience fighting in a real war after so many long years of tedious simulations and mock battles. The Terrans had proved that they have what it takes to fight the Zerg more seriously than ever before. However what they didn't know is that their pushing deep into the super hive clusters core area was all apart of the overall plane along with the orbital bombardment. Although the Spartans stumbling onto one of the new mega class Zerg cocoons wasn't part of the plan it mattered little.

The final phase of the plan relied upon the Maw o f the swarm portals which were used just prior to the Terrans orbital strike to move the mega Zerg cocoons out of harms way to pre prepared locations. After that it was only a waiting game until the right time presented itself which was coming soon as the main ground forces of the Terran invasion were gathering for one final attack. But despite this Zavaras mind was troubled and distracted. She taped on her armored throne as she was lost in thought over what had happened to her Empress. The report had only come in a mere day ago but the news of the disappearance of Ellen the Empress of the swarm during a final battle on the flagship of the enemies who had attacked the swarms capital was troubling to say the least.

The news and the effect of the loss of her psionic control single across the hive mind had caused the morale of the younger Queens and Brood queens to drop significantly and some lesser breeds nearly went berserk at the sudden event. But Zavara and Nakool the two oldest and strongest Brood Queens not only kept the young ones from loosing sanity and cohesion as a collective swarm but also held the belief that their empress will return someday. From what Izsha and Abastein are able to gather the technology that the enemies supreme fleet commander used on The Swarm Empress was some kind of dimension shift tech of alien origin that sent her into another dimension. But that was all the analysis came up with.

 **"Master Zavara the Terrans are moving into position for their final attack,"** Navash reported.

Zavara opened her eyes focusing on the matter at hand. Worrying about the Empress wouldn't accomplish anything. "Keep the Maws of the Swarm ready to activate on my signal. It's time to truly test the Terrans will to push onward through the stars"

* * *

 **With Selvaria, on board Orca transport in route to main assault forces gathering at outer perimeter of super hive cluster core zone.**

The large cavity of the hull reverberated with the low hum if the antigrav-engines as Selvaria listened to music in G-zeros cockpit. The MS pilot's hair had over the passed two months completely changed to silver and her eyes to a bright scarlet red. As the music beat to a enjoyable tune she tapped her fingers on the control spheres as she enjoyed one of her favorite song's in peace. But then she had a vision that made her stand up in a cold sweat. The image was short lived but intense.

Selvaria couldn't believe what she saw but her visions are rarely wrong. Breathing in and out she collected her self thinking about everything she has done and has yet to do. Deciding on her next course of action she balled her fists in resolve starting to get fearful of what she has to do to avoid that vision she had concerning the G-zero and herself. She breathed out relaxing before she returned to her music and peace. Peace that would be interrupted soon however as Hibiki walked up to the laying G-zero and climbed up to the chest cavity, reaching into the cockpit and turned the music off.

Selvaria opened her scarlet red eyes seeing a angry Hibiki standing over her. "Uh... hi Hibiki whats up?"

Without changing her expresion Hibiki replied. "Are you sure you want to be in the first attack wave," a worried tone escaping her voice.

"Yes," Selvaria replied. "I know it's dangerous even for the G-zero and me but if were at the front line the number of our own casualties will be less then without me and the big guy," she said taping on the wall.

Hibiki steared at her long time friend and just sighed dropping her head. "I understand that but what are you going to tell Justin. He's all worried and keeping to himself because he doesn't want to distract you. And you've been kind of avoiding him for a while now, like ever since we came to Alpha Centauri B."

Selvaria thought for a bit about what Hibiki said. Had she been avoiding Justin? she knew that she wanted to focus on herself appointed job of being the G-zero's pilot but that didn't mean she couldn't continue her relationship with Justin. But at the same time Selvaria realised she was trying to avoid him because she didn't want him to suffer if she was killed. Selvaria sighed and climb out of the G-zeros cockpit and onto it's chest where she sat with Hibiki.

"I know what your saying. But... never use LIKE in a sentence LIKE that again again ok!"

The two girls stared intently at each other for a moment before both broke out laughing. After calming the mood with the joke Selvaria and Hibiki leaned on each others shoulders.

"He really lick's... loves you you know," Hibiki stated.

"Yeah I know." Selvaria replied in a dispassionate tone. "He's always worried about me. If i'll come back after the next mission of if i'll really continue our... relationship."

Hibiki hummed in thought a moment. "Do you like like love him?" she asked up front and out in the open.

Selvaria opened her mouth to replied but then stopped hesitating. She liked Justin as a friend and she had intended to continue their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend after the war on Alpha Centauri B. But now she wasn't so sure and she knew it wasn't fair to Justin who had been waiting for her all this time. "I'll go have make up sex with him."

Hibiki was taken aback by this as her face flushed red in shock at the statement. "WHAT! but you... he. Your both still under twenty for crying out loud!"

Selvaria started giggling at Hibiki's reaction. "Oh come on we're both consenting adults."

Hibiki sighed. "Yeah NO your not adults as far as the law is concerned."

This just made Selvaria laugh more. "Were on the battlefield fighting frickin monsters. I think were allowed some leeway."

Hibiki sighed again feeling a headache coming on. "Well... if he wants to and you two aren't caught I don't think there would be a problem. Except for the fact you could get pregnant," Hibiki said giving Selvaria a glare.

"Don't worry." Selvaria stood up and walked off. "I'll swallow," she said as she hoped of the G-zero and walked off.

Hibiki's face turned beet red at the reply as her mind was suddenly filled with dirty thoughts. "Ugh hey hey wait up."

Hibiki followed Selvaria to the middle of the Orca transport where Justin and the other technicians responsible for maintaining the G-zero were playing cards.

Selvaria approached as Tom one of the technicians laid down a four of a kind, the best hand on the table much to the dismay of the others who bemoned their loss,"Hey Justin can I talk to you for a minute."

Justin turned behind himself to face the silver haired girl whom he considered his girlfriend. "Huh? what for."

"I just want to talk to you... privately."

Justin glanced at Hibiki who looked flush red for some reason and then back to Selvaria feeling something was off. "Is there something I should know about?"

Instantly Feeling fed up with his questioning Selvaria just grabbed his hand and pulled him along.

"What's up with them?" Tom asked as he collected his wining's.

"Oh you know... teenager stuff." Hibiki replied trying to keep her cool while touching the tips of her index fingers nervously.

Tom shrugged and baged his wining's while the other two techs moned depressingly at the loss of their money.

Meanwhile at the G-zeros head near the rear loading ramp door of the Orca transport, Justin stared at Selvaria wondering what she wanted although it did help distract him from the loss he had just suffered from the raining champ of cards. "So what did you want?" he asked shaking Selvaria out of her daze.

"Oh uh well..." Selvaria fidgeted a bit before finally speaking. "Justin ya know how I've been kind of cold as to our... relationship."

Knowing something was definitely up now Justin just kept his response simple and listened. "Yeah?"

"Well I know you went through a lot to prove that you had what it takes to work with the adults and I just want to say i'm sorry for not eh... for not being more appreciative for all your hard work and for waiting for me to um to show affection back."

Now really wanting to know what she's up to and to tease her Justin asked. "What's with you Selvaria? what do you mean by uh... affection. You going to give me a gift or something?"

Selvaria sighed instead of getting mad looking her supposed boyfriend in the eyes. The two looked deeply into each others eyes for a full ten seconds before Selvaria said. "I mean sex."

.

..

...

Three seconds passed before Justin reacted. "Uh what!?"

Taking the initiative Selvaria grabbed one of Justin's hands and placed it on her chest and started speaking in a low soft voice. "Im mean your not that bad looking and you've already done so much for me. And I wouldn't mind if your were the one who... uh were the one who uh... took my first."

Sweating bullets at the fact he had his hand on Selvaria's chest! Justin felt pressured and surprised at the fact she was the one to initiate this sort of situation herself not that her being a little aggressive was a bad thing Justin himself was a bit shy when it came to these sort's of things but what Selvaria was asking for was going a bit far. He had expected that after the war on Alpha Centauri B he would have all the time he needed to woo Selvaria but he was still apprehensive especially at the fact he's also still just a virgin.

"What' wrong afraid of underperforming," Selvaria spoke in a soft seductive voice to tease him.

Her words made him hesitate and pull his hand off her chest. "I... I just think it's a little to soon for the two of us to do this. I mean were both still teenagers. The only reason me and Hibiki are here with you is because we want to support you because we're your friend's and uh."

Selvaria smiled and hugged Justin tightly pressing her chest onto his."That why I like you Justin. You're willing to do so much for a person you met only recently. That sense of loyalty you have and your determination to go so far for me. It's why after all this time I can finally say I want you." Selvaria loosened her hug and looked Justin deeply in the eyes with a longing stare that held the boy in place . "Besides I think you've waited long enough to get some action."

"Uh... um well were were uh... still min... minors," Justin replied stuttering as his blood finally started pumping in response to her words.

Selvaria huffed in a irritated manner. "Come on were private contractors. Military rules about relationships don't apply to us. Beside's how will we ever get experience in this if we don't try it out.

Justin sighed and placed his hand on Selvarias shoulders. "Only... um only if you really want to."

Instead of saying something else the silver haired girl just buried her face in Justin's chest. She felt safe and happy and finally decided to tell him what she saw. "I... I saw the G-zero being destroyed."

In a flash a hazy image showed the G-zero being impaled and ripped apart by a giant Zerg that dwarfed a Ultralisk in size. The prospect in and of itself was terrifying.

At the confession Justin felt the pit of his stomach drop. Selvaria doesn't use her precognition ability very often but when she does it's always 100% accurate so long as she touch's the object or person.

"Do you know when or where or how?" Justin asked a tone of desperation in his voice.

Selvaria just shook her head slowly side to side. "That's why if I do die in the near future I want to repay you for all that you've done for me."

"You giving me your body isn't a repayment for anything. It's just stupid. Isn't there... anything we can do?"

There was a pause that seemed like it lasted far longer than a few seconds. "There... is something we could try. But... im scared. But more for you than myself."

"What is it. And why are you more scared for me then your selfe" Justin asked.

"Well. It's... because if it fails. If i'm not developed enough then... you'll have to live with the fact your killed me."

Justin paled at the thought of what he had been told just now. "What do you mean I don't understand?"

"I've told you and Hibiki that im a Valkyrur right."

"Yeah."

"Well what I haven't told you is HOW a Valkyrur is awakened." Justin remained silent giving his full attention to every word Selvaria says. "In... in order for me to fully awaken as a valkyrur I need to suffer a near fatal wound.

"What!" Justin felt horrified at such a thing.

"I could do it myself. But... since I trust you I'ed thought i'ed ask you but. I see that it was a mistake. I shouldn't force that upon you."

Justin was silent for a bit. Around the corner of the trailer holding G-zero Hibiki sat on the metal floor holding herself as she was just as stunned as Justin at learning this fact.

Justin wiped his tears away and started thinking of some way to help. "Maybe we can have doctor's on stand by so if the awakening fails your life can be spared."

Selvaria shook her head side to side as she started tearing up like Justin. "No it won't work like that."

"Why not?!" he said now sounding desperate.

"Because. The fear of death. The desire to live. It's apart of the process of a Valkyrur's awakening. It can't faked. At least that's what mom and dad told me."

Trying to change the subject Justin pushed another question. "What... are your parent's like."

Selvaria seemed to become more melancholy at the thought of her parent's. "Well they were loving and kind and tough and brutal when giving training. But the only time I ever saw them sad was when I had to leave them to complete my mission."

"And whats that?"

"Ah ha. Sorry but I can't tell you that. Unless you make me moan," Selvaria tessed.

"Sheesh your still on about that!"

"Sorry. Ah hah. I couldn't resist. Teasing you is just too fun."

With a pouty face Justin looked Selvaria in the face. "If it's so fun why haven't you done it more often?"

Selvaria squeezed more tightly. "I would have if I knew you liked it."

Justin broke out laughing, his voice carrying through the cargo hold to the other technicians.

"Is that Justin?"

"Why's he laughing?"

"Maybe the the little missy told him a joke," Tom said as he dealt another hand of cards. "Now do you two want to win your money back or not?"

"Ok ok im in."

"Yeah me two just deal me."

 **Back with Justin and Selvaria**

"What! what's so funny? It wasn't a joke," she asked.

Justin stopped laughing and hugged Selvaria more tightly. "It's... It's just I've been wanting to deepen our relationship for a while now. And here we are finally talking like a real couple."

Selvaria blushed red the color contrasting with her hair. "I really like talking to you to. Ya know... just the two of us."

For a few minutes the two just held each other as they finally felt like a real couple for the first time since Justin first confessed to Selvaria in the library at the Psi-academy years before. The two of them just held each other like the world would end if they let eachother go all the while Hibiki smiled happy that their finally developing a closer bond. She had been worried ever since the two of them started only acting like friends and not as boyfriend and girlfriend. But now at least she doesn't have to worry anymore. As she sat there on the cold neosteel floor Hibiki smiled wondering if she will ever find a man for herself somewhere someday.

Both her and Justin agreed that they would make a decision one day concerning miss Ellen Reid's proposal to give them the aging reversal treatment she developed to use on herself. It would allow them to live long lives along with Selvaria after she awakens as a Valkyrur and becomes immortal. Unaging and undying.

"Huh just like a vampire or something," Hibiki mused to herself as she stood up and walked back to the card dealing boys leaving the two love birds alone for real this time when the co-pilot made a report on the inter com.

*Bzzzk* [Listen up people. Were approaching the combined forces staging base so get ready for landing. That's all.]

Justin and Selvaria held each other as they looked to each others faces and suddenly felt embarrassed and separated.

"Umm..." Selvaria stammered looking reserved while Justin suddenly felt more confident and decided to make the next move.

"Hey," he said making Selvaria look him in the face.

"Yes," she replied looking at him.

"If you want I... I can go through with the awakening thing with you."

Selvaria recognised his new found determination and didn't want to let it go to waste. "Are you sure?"

Without hesitating Justin replied. "Yes."

Selvaria took in a deep breath and grabbed his hand leading Justin to the G-zeros cockpit. After the two were inside Justin sat on the control chair with Selvaria on his lap as she closed and locked the hatch and turned off the external speakers so as to give them complete privacy. Both feeling a little hot and flushed dew to the increased blood flow in their bodies they took a moment or cool off and get comfortable with the seating arrangement's. After a few moment's Selvaria reached into a compartment behind the control chair and brought out a single edged japanese dagger called a tantō. The handle was 5 inch's long colored white as ivory. The faintly curved scabbard that held the neosteel blade was 6 inches long also white ivory with a gold eastern dragon that ran along it on both sides.

"Beautiful." Was Justin's first response.

"I had it made specifically for my awakening. Mom said she had a fondness for japanese stuff and I do to. At least I developed a liking for their culture after my first visit there."

Justin closely watched the silver blade as it was unsheathed from it's scabbard. The light gleamed off the spotless silver blade as it was held up in the air. "And... uh you'll be stabbed by it."

Sensing his distressed tone of voice Selvaria dropped the scabbard resting her arm around Justin's neck and lowered the blade turning it on it's side. "Yes. That's it's purpose after all." the ton of Selvarias voice sounded so distant and forlorn to Justin."Hehe. It's like a key if you think about it."

"A key?" Justin wondered. "A key to your power as a Valkyrur."

Selvaria gave a saddened chuckle as she flicked the tip around aiming it towards her chest. "And my immortality."

When he heard that Justin held Selvaria tighter with one arm and grabbed the handle with the other. The soon to be Valkyrur looked up at him with a worried expression flush across her face. "I'll do it." He said his voice shaking with fear and uneasiness.

Slowly Selvaria released the handle as Justin moved his hand over it. She then put to fingure's on the tip and moved it onto her chest directly over her heart. "Here... make it fast. And don't hesitate."

Justin breathed in and out, in and out. He moved the blade closer and further, closer and further from it's intended target. Selvaria closed her eyes waiting for the pain. She expected Justin to chicken out and hand her back the blade but once she felt the tip of the blade cut a millimeter into her skin she didn't know if he would. She did tell him she would do it herself so maybe he want's to take the burden of doing it on him selfe. Her thoughts strayed to regrets about telling him about the awakening in the first place. What right did she have to put him, the man who loved her and who she loved and at such a young age into that position.

But there wasn't anymore time for such thoughts or regrets.

In a single motion the blade pierced through her chest and into her heart. Selvaria jerked in pain for a moment as streams of tears dripped from both their eyes and there grips on each other only got tighter.

Blood flowed out of the wound dripping on cloths, skin and the neosteel blade as Selvaria lost strength and became limp, slumped lifelessly as Justin felt her body get cold and saw her eyes lose there light. The seconds ticked by and doing the only thing he could do he held her as tightly as possible. The tears from his eyes kept flowing.

*HEART BEAT*

One second passed. _"I want to live!"_

*HEART BEAT*

Two seconds passed. _"I want to marry Justin!"_

*HEART BEAT*

Three seconds passed. _"I want to have kids someday."_

*HEART BEAT*

Four second passed. _"I want to protect them."_

*HEART BEAT*

Five seconds passed. _"And... I want to see my parent's again!"_

Inside the RN drive the G-zeros core of purified Ragnite started glowing with a inner light as if reacting to something external.

The Tanto blade started to move little by little on it's own until it flew out of Selvaria's chest shattering the handle on the side of the cockpit denting it. Justin woke with a start as the metal blade clattered on the floor. G-zeros eyes and body started to glow with a inner light that illuminated the inside of the Orca.

"What the hell!" Tom exclaimed as he Hibiki and the others covered their eyes in astonishment from the light.

 **Gamma base command center, Officers quarter's.**

Aliasse stood in her shower enjoying the warm water as she cleaned herself off. When suddenly she felt a wave of energy wase over her like a flood. In a second she turned around facing in the direction of the powerful new source of psionic power. "Selvaria!" She spoke the name with a sad tone. "So you went through with it. Your now a..."

 **Zerg hive super cluster core.**

Zavara stopped in her tracks turning on her heel as the wave of energy washed over her. "A new Valkyrur?! other then my empress or Aliasse." Zavara stared a hole through the wall in the direction of the awakening Valkyrur feeling the process of her awakening grow more and more complete with every passing second.

 **"Master Zavara I sense a new and extremely powerful psionic signal!" Navash projected.**

 **"I can sense it too master. What are our orders" Kilysa projected.**

Zavara smiled feeling her blood boil with anticipation as her warriors spirit felt alive again. "We'll observe for now. Im interested in what this new Valkyrur can do."

 **Back With Justin and Selvaria.**

Back in the G-zeros cockpit Selvaria's body started glowing with uncountable numbers of blue tracer lines that radiated from the center of her chest. Her flesh mended. Her heart regenerated and bones repaired she took in a breath of air and it was all Justin needed, to know she was alright.

For minutes he held her tightly while the glowing slowly dimed. The tracer lines grew more and more complete until they were fully connected and formed a network of ghostly blue lines across Selvaria's body. More time passed, how long Justin didn't know but it felt like hours. Eventually Selvaria regained consciousness and opened her eyes looking around groggily as the G-zero stopped glowing and turned dark again.

"Huh? wah? aaa?" Selvaria's eyes were drawn up to the weeping face over her. "Ha... see. Im fine." She said raising a hand to caress Justin's face. "No need for the water works."

Her words only made Justin cry all the more as he gripped her even more tightly. "I...*sob* I thought you were dead! *sob*,"

"Hey your' ugh gone kill me *ga* for real *ah* if you don't let go."

Realising how tight he was holding Selvaria Justin eased up much to her relief.

Both of them just sat there, their breathing synchronizing along with the beat of their hearts.

* * *

 **20 kilometers south of the Combined forces base.**

The fighting over the passed few months had been the most brutal and savage the UNSC had seen since it's inception and there wasn't a single person in the whole invasion force who didn't think the Spartans weren't, pulling their own weight. In fact ever since the orbital bombardment two month's ago the Spartans had been working more than any other force. Leading interception mission against Zerg assault waves. Providing support to ground forces establishing a new field or expansion base and holding strategically important pieces of land like a mountain sepereting the core of the super hive cluster and the preparation base for the UNSC's final assault on said Hive cluster.

On a large outcropping of rock protruding out the side of a mountain a pair of Spartan snipers laid pron on their bellies. One Alanna Bannister the captain of Jade platoon shouldered a large ARC-150 sniper rifle peered through it's scope while her partner Lindsay Upton laid beside her observing the creep covered landscape stretching out before them with his binoculars, but they weren't alone. Twenty other pairs Spartans also rested along the side of the mountain all guarding the approach to the combine forces gathering location for the final push into the core of the super hive cluster.

As they watched through their scopes the sun started peeking over the horizon signaling the start of a new day but even so the Spartan's remained still as statue's. Watching the terrain stretching out before them become slowly illuminated as the sun rose into the sky. A small one meter long vibration sensor tower (one of many each sniper team had) sticking out of the ground started sending vibration telemetry to the Spartans hud. On the top left of each Spartans helmet a small circular screen started pulsing with red dots indicating burrowed Zerg approaching from twenty kilometers away. The Spartans snipers all along the mountain changed the angle of their rifles by a few degrees as they aimed at the underground target's approaching the mountain from the Hive cluster.

They waited as the seconds ticked by one by one until the Zerg were in optimal firing range and then pulled the triggers. A barrage of hypervelocity shells launched from the side of the mountain too the open plain below. Dozens of shells impacted the ground penetrating several meters deep as each round drilled a hole right through the dirt and rock by their shear velocity, shape and mass before impacted their underground targets. Over the span of a few seconds a hundred shots were fired and all the underground vibrations stopped. The Spartans reloaded as their rifles cooled but never let their guard down as the Zerg had played dead before and given the speed of the burrowing Zerg they had to be Roaches so they wouldn't go down that easily.

"You think we got em?" asked Lindsay.

"No" replied. Captain Bannister.

Seconds passed then a minute, and two. The seismic sensors detected weak movement vibrations but couldn't pin the location. Then the tiny vibrations became stronger and stronger.

"Nydus worm," The captain Bannister stated as she Shifted her scope to the location of the vibrations.

"Shit! It had to be a Nydus worm." Exclaimed Lindsay. "Do we retreat or..."

"We stay put. But request artillery support."

"Roger." Lindsay replied as he got on the radio.

While her partner got on the line with the nearest artillery unit Captain Bannister kept her scope right on the location the vibrations were strongest. A mere five seconds later the land ripped open exposing the massive split head of a Nydus worm erupted out from beneath the earth. Knowing her rifle would be next to useless against it she instead zoomed out again and re aimed on the Roaches who had started moving again but it was difficult to pin their exact locations because of the interference from the Nydus worms own vibrations.

"Shit. Smart little bastard's ain't ya." she stated.

[Artillery in coming.] stated Lindsay. Moments later a barrage of neosteel shells screamed over head raining upon the Nydus worm blasting bloody chunks out of it's elongated body with every impact. After only three seconds of the sustained pinpoint fire the worm became a bloody stain on the landscape without ever delivering any ground forces for the Zerg. With the interference from the Nydus worm gone the vibrations of the other Zerg became much easier to read but their numbers had doubled. The Spartans now saw twice as many on their vibration sensor's as before."

"Shit. Open fire." Captain Bannister ordered.

Like before a rain of shells rained down from the mountain to the landscape below blasting up large plums of dirt with each shot. One by one the vibration signals died off until only fifty remained but before they could be dealt with they reached the base of the mountain rendering the ground penetrating shoots useless as they can only go through a certain amount of ground before stopping and now the mountain itself was in the way.

Captain Bannister gritted her teeth and made a call. "All right everyone the shooter on every team will continue watching out for anymore Zerg coming this way. All spotters will switch to close ranged combat and cover their shooters."

At their platoon captain's orders the Spartans sniper platoon replied all at once with a [Yes ma'am.]

Half of the Spartans swapped out their rifles for a shotgun or a psi-blade and stood at the ready. The minutes passed as the Zerg climbed up through the mountain to their targets. Eventually reaching the altitude the Spartans were at.

*Dirt explosion*Skree.* Roaches and their alpha counterparts erupted out from the ground all over the mountain Near the Spartan teams. The sound of gunfire and roars of Zerg echoed across the mountain side. Captain Bannister and Lindsay waited for the Zerg to attack weapons at the ready. They didn't have to wait long before a pair of Alpha Roaches burst out from the rocks behind them. Lindsay opened up with his shotguns triple shot burst mode showering the Roaches with rapid fire close ranged fire that ripped into their armor but ultimately didn't do much to such thick chitin.

"Shit! tough armor."

In a blood thirsty roar the Roache's opened their maws spewing out streams of deadly high pressure acid that melted the very dirt and stones Captain Bannister and Lindsay stood upon. Evading the green goo of death and not feeling entirely comfortable testing the acid proofness of their armor the two spartans jumped. Seeing the Terrans leap off the rock the two Roaches scuttled closer and looked down over the cliff to the ground hundreds of meters below but saw nothing but rock.

"Hey! uglies over here,"

The banter caught the Roaches attention. They looked down to the left seeing the two Terrans on a small outcropping of rock in the cliff side. One holding a stick shaped object with a red top and their thumb over the red part. *ClICK*BOOM* Explosives placed along the base of the rock the Roaches were on detonated dropping the extended piece of rock down the cliff along with the two Alpha Roaches who were crushed by the velocity times the mass of a hundred tons of granite slamming into the mountain side.

Both Captain Bannister and her partner Lindsay looked down over the cliff thankful that that's not them.

"Yeah know what captain," Lindsay said.

"Yeah what?"

"Your the craziest som-a-bitch i've ever seen. And I wouldn't have it anyother way hehe. I mean placing explosives on the very rock cliff we were sniping from!"

Captain Bannister turned to her subordinate and just gave him a steely glare. "It's called being prepared. Now lets go."

"Oh... well... jumping off the cliff and swinging over to this rock along the cliff side was still kinda nuts."

As Lindsay caught up to her Captain Bannister stated." The rope was rated for three Spartans worth of weight so it was safe."

"Still crazy."

The captain sighed opening a comm line to the rest of her platoon. "This is captain Bannister to Jade platoon whats everyones states?"

There was a moments delay before reports came in mostaly saying everyone was safe but there was a few light injures mostaly acid related.

"See I told yeah that stuff can get in between the crack's in our armor," Lindsay stated after hearing about the acid eating through second lieutenant Nashe's leg.

Sighing again Captain Bannister opened a comm line to the combined forces field base. Soon after a dozen Pelicans and Falcons arrived with a fresh group of Spartans to keep the mountain pass secure while Captain Bannisters platoon returned to base for some R&R.

The ride back was the first rest Jade platoon has had in 48 hours and after getting back many of them promised to fill their bellies with fresh food and alcohol before hitting the bunks.

At the combined forces preparation base the spartans of Jade platoon hopped off their transports and marched their way to their designated barrack's where everyone either stacked out in bed or went to get some food. Captain Bannister sat down with a plate full of food in the cafeteria but before she could get any food in her mouth she got a call over the bases inter com.

[Captain Bannister please report to briefing room 5-S. I repeat Captain Bannister please report to briefing room 5-S.]

"Aaa! come on!" she exclaimed in a weary tone.

[Captain Bannister please-]

"Yeah yeah I hear you i'm coming."

Having no choice the Captain took her food with her and if the brass had a problem with that then perhaps she would have some words about not letting soldiers rest and relax after spending over two days on a mountain side shooting Zerg.

* * *

 **Briefing room 5-S**

The large half circle room was stuffed with many high ranking officers from the different army groups that comprise the total UNSC forces on Alpha Centauri B including leaders of Spartans platoons in their normal uniforms. Among them was all of the surviving members of Obsidian platoon now led by ONI officer Hamilton. Sapphire platoon which was newly formed after two other Spartan platoons were nearly wiped out. The member's of which included Jonathan Aitken, Reginald Schwenke, Manfred Alduino, Zula Thomas and Harriette Ness, who were among the first spartans to set foot on Alpha Centauri B. The other members consisting of Katherine Ashton, Christopher Rent and Amber Neil who had lost the other members of their platoon to a ambuse from a horde of Zerglings that overwhelmed their platoons position with seer numbers. Luckily the three of them survived long enough to be rescued by a bombing run from suborbital Shortsword bombers.

Their were many other ranking captains and colonels but the highest ranking person there was special rank commander Irving also known as Aliasse Irving who was chosen to serve as the commander for the final operation. She stood in back of the room behind a podium waiting for the last arrival to show up. Aliasse looked up to the back door in anticipation, and a few seconds later the door flew open as miss Bannister leader of Spartan Jade platoon entered with a tray full of half eaten food which she continued to eat after sitting down in one of the unused seats by the door in the far left corner of the room.

"Well now that miss Bannister has decided to grace us with her presence we can begin with the briefing."

Aliasse played with the screen controls on the podium and a second later the back wall screen blinked on showing the core hive cluster at the center of the super hive cluster hovering over it was a dark cloud consisting of hundreds of psi-armor enhanced Starfish. The Zergs infamous living shield unit that had been used to protect their bioships in space but here they were being used to defend a ground position a hundred mile's wide from any orbital attack. It was this that prevented the core of the super hive cluster, a area hundreds of miles wide, from being to adversely affected by the orbital bombardment.

"As all of you can see the cloud of Starfish are protecting the core of the Super hive cluster from any attack from orbit. We have tried using focused bombardments of Mac cannons to brake their defenses using hive busters but as all of you know that failed much to all our surprise. After a analysis by our AI's and experts in Zerg biology we think that these Starfish are receiving a psionic boost from a underground cluster of structures that we've detected." The screens lower left sector was highlighted in red." We don't know how it work's but we believe these structures are producing surplus amounts of psionic power and transferring it to the Starfish, greatly increasing their level of defense."

At that one officer raised their hand and asked."Why hasn't the Infinity just used it's main guns to blast through the Starfish?"

Aliasse shifted uneasily at that question. "Well that's because the Infinities main cannons were blasted to scrap during the orbital bombardment two months ago."

 **/Flash Back\\\**

As the UNSC fleet fired it's orbital barrage the Infinity charged up its twin Valkof cannons but mear moments before firing two dozen Maw of the swarm warp gate's opened up along it's hull, each one spewing out hundreds of Scourges that impacted all along the massive ship's hull. All of them a distraction as one more warpgate opened right in front of the Infinity releasing dozens of Scourges that flew right down the two Valkof cannon barrel's and detonated. The resulting explosion tore a rip right through the forward hull and killed hundreds of personnel and the ships main weapons.

 **/Flash Back End\\\**

*Mumbled voice.* Some heads turned at the muffled voice of Captain Bannister trying to speak with her mouth full.

Aliasse continued. "Anyway the presence of the StarFish is highly disrupting to any air support given to our ground force's. So were going to begin a operation aimed at destroying these psi-enhancer's as were calling them for now. The operations name is silver flood. The operations a simple one. Were going to borrow into the Zergs core hive cluster with our own Simulant Nydus worm and flood the Zergs hive cluster with all the combat Simulant's we've built so far."

The room was agasp at the plan and it's directness as Aliasse continued. "I highly doubt this will finish off the Core hive cluster but it will know doubt be enough to brake through their lines long enough to destroy those psi-enhancers boosting the StarFish. And after that we'll begin a full scale airborne attack paired with a artillery bombardment that will be quickly followed by the land assault lead by the Spartans and the armored cavalry. And they'll be followed by the normal infantry forces."

After swallowing the last of her food Captain Bannister raised her hand catching the commanders attention. "Yes." Aliasse said.

"Commander I was just wondering. What if those psi-enhancers aren't taken out or what if there's more of them."

The question's were valid ones. Aliasse took a moment to mull them over. "In that case I guess we'll have to attack with the forces we have. And take more casualties than we wan't. Now do you have anymore questions Captain Bannister?"

Alanna took a moment to think. "One more question. Will that big robot Z-zero or what ever be leading the land assault?"

"It's designation is G-zero. And no. It's being left in reserve in case the Zerg try any last ditch strategy to stop our attack. Now does anyone have anymore questions?" The room remained silent. "Very well then. The operation will begin in 24 hours. Miss Bannister that should give you and your platoon more than enough time to rest up."

After the briefing everyone dispersed going back to their normal duties or to prepare for what will hopefully the final operation on Alpha Centauri B. Meanwhile Aliasse gathered her notes and left for her private quarters in the field bases command center. Aliasse slid open the door to her room and sitting on the table by the window sat Justin. Watching as the gathering ground forces outside were organised. "You said you wanted to talk?" she said.

The boy glanced to Aliasse a moment before returning his gaze to the window. "Yes... there's something I need to get off my chest."

Sensing the boy's unease Aliasse walked to her rooms modest kitchen and pulled out two small cups of ice cream, jabed a spoon in each of them and sat with Justin at the table. "Want some."

Knowing it wasn't a question Justin took the small cup of ice cream and eat a spoon full of the chocolate frozen delight. "... Miss... Commander Irving may I ask-"

"About Selvarias awakening," Aliasse said cutting the boy off.

Justin sighed indignantly and just nodded eating another spoon full of his ice cream.

Aliasse took in a deep breath before continuing. "If your wondering about the awakening process of Valkyrur, receiving a fatal or near fatal wound is the only known way to kickstart a Valkyrur's powers."

Justin stared daggers at Aliasse. "But why. Why haven't there been any understanding about the Valkyrur and how they work. I would have thought you would have wanted to know more about what you are and how not to repeat the tragedies of the past."

Aliasse looked down into her cup of ice cream thinking of her parents and regretting their deaths and the deaths of everyone else on the plane they were on and the fact that it was that event that forced her to awaken as a valkyrur. She acknowledged that she felt a bit of resentment at the whole affair but its not like she had a time machine.

 _"But what if I did, would I really want to change anything given what I know now."_

The thoughts sent a cold shiver down Aliasse's spine. If the crash never happened then her parents would have lived on along with all the other people on that plane. But then she wouldn't have become a Valkyrur and went to live with her uncle and never would have met Alicia or saved Zerion became friends with princess Lily and her family or been there to fight Ellen and Azrumath.

A lot of things would have changed but weather for the worse or better was a different question completely. Despite not knowing which side to take Aliasse had no regrets about her own decisions. She had made her own fare share of them but she never regretted them. Or resented Ellen for her own actions. The two Valkyrur both have their own ways of thinking and both respect each other as both woman and as warriors. After finishing her little jog down memory lane Aliasse gave Justin a firm stare.

"I do want to know more about what a Valkyrur really is an why we even exist. But after living a long life I understand there will be a time and place for such things to be properly reviled. I'm sure that one day i'll know why and who created this thing that I am... a Valkyrur," Aliasse turned to the window and watched as hundreds of thousands of soldiers marched and prepared for the coming operation. "But until then i'm content with who I am now. And i'm sure Selvaria feels the same way."

Justin sighed as he took a few more spoon fulls of his ice cream. "I understand. It's just that... I... stabbed her."

Aliasse saw that the boy was just about to cry and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure it was much scarier for Selvaria. That's probably why she asked you to help her with the process. So she wouldn't be alone. I once told her about how I awoke as a Valkyrur."

Justin hesitated before asking. "How did you?"

"A plane crash. I don't know what the cause was but the passenger plane me and my family was on along with many of other people crashed in a mountain range. I was the only survivor. And I was alone for a long time. I awoke in a daze and wondered the crash site looking for my parents... for anyone really. When It got cold I huddled in some scrape piece of the plane just to keep me warm and waited."

Justin winched from the uncomfortable feeling he got from the story. "I get it you don't have to say an more."

"What I'm trying to say is she wanted to have someone with her."

Justin's face light up with realization. "Because she trusted me."

Aliasse nodded eating another few scoops of her ice cream. "As her boyfriend and as her future husband."

Justin sighed realising it was something so simple and sincerely felt grateful that the girl he fell in love with felt that way about him. "Thanks for the talk miss Aliasse."

"No problem. Now are you going to finish that?" She said pointing to Justin's ice cream.

"Uh no i'll eat it."

* * *

 **A few minutes later at the G-zeros hanger.**

The G-zero stood upright with its armor plates removes and its booster packs placed along the hanger floor. Hibiki and the others techs were giving the humanoid warmachine a full retrofit and maintenance run because something had been funny with the RN drive ever since they had arrived. It wasn't a malfunction as far as they could tell but it now produced more energy than it normally did and the excess power was infusing into the frame of the MS and causing interference with the normal none psionic systems.

"Hey find out what's wrong yet?" Selvaria asked from the hanger floor.

Hibiki popped her head out from behind extended and exposed RN drive with a frustrated expressen. "No. Nothing looks damaged or malfunctioning other than the subsystems from the leaking psi energy."

"I don't even know how that energy works or how its moving through the G-zero's frame?" said one of the technicians.

"Yeah. I get how it can enhance a structural integrity of materials but now the stuff seems like it's... growing?"

Hibiki tilted her head at the choice of words."Well whatever's happening we got to get this bucket of bolts working before the beginning of the operation."

"Yeah yeah were on it." the techs said.

Selvaria sighed wondering if it had something to do with her awakening as a Valkyrur. She looked to her still glowing hand realising that she hadn't really tried out her powers yet. Feeling the need to develop control and get used to it she left the hanger and walked to the main road that ran through the center of the base. Once she reached the straight four lane road way she broke out into a full sprint her speed ever increasing as she focused on her body more and more. After a few moments she reached 20 mile's per hour and just kept going until reaching the edge of the base. In a single leap she cleared the two story high wall and hit the ground running not loosing a bit of speed. Enthralled at the new found freedom she just kept going full sprint her speed increasing to 30 mph then 50 then 70. Her legs were blers below her waist.

Then seeing that the terrain was changing to a rocky ground she started leaping over the rough rocky ground. With each leap she cleared dozens of feet.

A ways in front of her the land started to disappear as one of the many crack's in the landscape came ever closer. Remembering one of her mother's lessons on Aura control she focused and felt the aure extend out of her back forming a pair of light blue feathered wings. In a single jump the Young Valkyrur bounded high over the edge of the deep chasm flapping her new wings. After a few moments of instability she leveled out and gave a big grin across her face at her accomplishment.

"HAHA finally I can fly. God I missed flying with mom. Once I get back I'm so challenging her to a sky race."

The moment she finished her own words Selvaria felt sad. Sad at being seperated. Sad at being forced to go in this stupid mission. And sad at the possibility that she may never see her mom or dad again if she fails. But then she remembered what her mother said once.

 **/Flash Back\\\**

A woman with blue ribbons coming off her back stood over a younger six year old looking Selvaria who had a few bruise's. "Your ok get up." The woman said as Selvaria did so.

"It's impossible. I can't dodge something that fast," As the words escaped Selvaria's lips tears fallowed from her eyes.

The woman huffed and patted her daughter on top the head. "You know nothing worth getting is ever easy. Training to fight is no different. Their's always a obstacle in your way... and sometimes it's yourself."

The younger Selvaria wiped away her rears looking up to the light obscured face of her mother.

"Not all obstacles can be beaten and others aren't worth the trouble of beating... but the ones we can deal with can be surpassed if we only have the courage to believe in ourselves, the other people we fight beside and are willing to think outside the box."

 **/Flash Back End\\\**

With her eyes closed Selvaria glided across the artificial canyon, then in a instant she flapped her wings and launched up into the air stopping hundreds of meters in the air and circled. She gathered a enormous amount of her aura in the form of an orb and launched it at the ground. "Araaaaa!"

The truck sized amount of aura impacted the ground exploding in a bright flash of light that enveloped the whole area. *KABOOOM* The ear splitting explosion detonated with the destructive force of a small Fusion bomb. Rock was turned to dust, the ground to glass leaving behind a new crater in the canyon.

The shockwave sent her flying higher but with a few flaps of her wings Selvaria stabilized from the shockwave of her own attack and was protected by a aura skin suit covering her. The blue layer of solid psionic energy sifted away as she looked down observing her own handy work. "Hehehe. Moms were way bigger." she said clinching her fist. "I'll get the hang of it. And with the G-zero boosting my powers and combat abilities I'll make sure to complete my mission."

"And what might that be if I ask?"

Selvaria instantly went on guard flapping her wings to wipe around but saw no one was around her. "What who?" As soon as she spoke she felt a pair of strong armored arms reach around her body, one hand was placed gently on her left cheek while the other reached around her right waist as a large armored body female pressed up against her back one that was much bigger than her. "Ah uh who... who are you?"

The unknown Zerg, person just hummed in delight. "Oh i'm the Brood queen incharge of this-" the Zerg person stopped a moment as she sniffed Selvaria. "*Sniff*Sniff* Hmm... little planet. Though my sister was supposed to help me out she had to leave with my empress to deal with a unforseen enemy that attacked our capital."

Selvaria suddenly knew who the person was. "You must be Zavara."

Zavara froze for a moment shocked that a Terran knew her name and who was also a awoken Valkyrur. "My my your full of surprises. Little one. Well since you already know my name you may as well tell me yours?"

The grip on her body was firm but also gental. Zavara had excellent control of her own strength. If she wanted she could rip Selvaria's throat out before she even had a chance to form a aura armor to protect herself. But another issue was how the Brood queen was able to get soo close without being sensed. One of a Valkyrur's main abilities is the power to sense psionic energy much better than any other race But then Selvaria remembered about her mother telling her about the psionic jammers Izsha developed and that the Tal'darim had.

"The names Selvaria. Uh can we land before we continue this conversation."

Zavara glanced down. "Oh your no fun. Fine then." With swish of her tail the Brood queen signaled a Overseer near the horizon and a instant later a maw of the swarm warg gate formed directly below them. With a surprised scream Selvaria was pulled into the portal.

 **Super hive cluster main chamber.**

Selvaria fell out of the warpgate landing on her feet in a combat stance. Surrounding her were many other Queens and a few humanoid Brood queens know doubt under Zavaras command, all of them staring at the lone Valkyrur. Zavara landed right behind her, walking to and sat upon a chitin throne with her hands of the armrests in a neutral relaxed sitting position.

"So what do you want with me?" Selvaria asked turning to Zavara.

"Hmm it's been a long time since any new Valkyrur awoken. My empress always told me to be respectful of my enemies. I simply wanted a chance to talk."

"So... what do you want to talk about?"

Zavara smiled."I went to meet you at first to see the newly awoken Valkyrur. But then." Zavara narrowed her eyes steepling her hands. "I smelled something odd about you and I would like to know-"

Selvaria gulped.

"Why do you smell like a Zerg? and like my empress?"

 _"Shit, shit, shit,"_ Selvaria thought. _"I can't let it slip that i'm Ellen's daughter. But how else am I going to get out of this situation. I could use my Valkyrur powers to fight my way out? No that won't work. Mom always said never to agitate any Zerg if they wanted to talk. So i'm just going to have to bs my way out. No the'll sense any attempt at deception."_

"Im waiting." Zavara said with finality.

Despite the chill that just went down her spine Selvaria gathered her courage and spoke in a cherry voice. "I can't tell you anything concerning my... smell. But if you want to talk about anything else I would be happy to."

Zavara sat in her throne taping the tips of her clawed fingers together. She sensed the girls unease at the matter concerning her self but sensed as though she was a interesting person. And one of Empresses Ellen's long standing orders was never kill interesting people if it can be avoided. "Ok Selvaria lets change the subject to that humanoid combat frame. Its a very interesting piece of Terran technology."

Selvaria sighed in part relife and part fear at where this was going. "Yes Im the pilot and designer of the G-zero."

Zavara smiled. "Is that so. Tell me why use a giant humanoid form?"

"It's versatile and with the proper expansions a very powerful design. Anything else?"

Selvaria was sweating bullets at this point. Not only was she in the middle of the Zergs hive cluster but she was also captured by one of the highest ranking leaders in her mothers swarm. It would be easy to get out of this situation if she just told Zavara the truth about herself but that could cause problems in the distant future if the information leeks. Keeping the fact she is the daughter of Ellen the swarm empress a secret is top priority.

Zavara narrowed her eyes at the Terran, not knowing what to make of her. On the one hand she was a Valkyrur and a enemy who piloted the G-zero. But on the other hand she had the empresses smell and that of a Zerg although mixed in with Terran and something else. Zavara couldn't make heads or tail's of what exactly this Selvaria was but she was obviously important. Maybe a secret project the empress and Abastein created.

Zavara stood up and walked to Selvaria who stood her ground before the much taller Brood queen. "I don't know what you are but it seems your important or would be important to my empress. So you may go, and if we ever meet on the battlefield I hope you'll provide me with a good fight. Little one."

Selvaria smirked at the proposal. "Heh. Thanks." A moment later a Maw of the swarm warp gate opened right behind her. Selvaria turned around to leave from the odd encounter but before she did Zavara said one last thing.

"Oh and Selvaria. Were going on the attack. Better hurry."

At the proclamation Selvaria gasp. "Ah shit!" With that final word she passed through the warpgate.

Zavara huffed a sign of mild amusement. **"It's time. Awaken my pets. Time to destroy."**

In various locations around the core of the super hive cluster massive cocoons were warp gated away just like they were before the Terrans orbital bombardment destroyed them.

Back at the combined forces base Selvaria dropped out of the air landing right over the base. She quickly produced her aura wings stabilizing herself. Then after getting her baring's she headed straight to Aliasse's location. In a rapid swooping maneuver she quickly dropped to ground level and flew over the base and countless Simulants and other military forces all preparing for the attack that was never going to happen.

 _"Got to make it in time."_ Selvaria thought landing right over the command center Aliasse was in. She ran in side pushing aside anyone in her way. In mere moments she arrived at commander Irvings room.

Aliasse was in her room looking over some reports when she sensed Selvaria had suddenly appeared over the base and rapidly made her way to her room.

The door slide open as Selvaria ran inside. "The Zerg are attacking!"

Aliasse not knowing what she meant by attack asked for a more clear answer. "Selvaria please calm down. Whats wrong?"

The younger Valkyrur taking a hint breathed in and out taking a more calmer tone. "I was out training with my new powers as a Valkyrur outside the base when the leader of the swarm here on Alpha Centauri B attacked and captured me. I'm ok but before she let me go she said that their going on the offensive."

Aliasse took the explanation in stride and sighed. "I see. I knew they had to have a reason for not being more aggressive."

Selvaria blinked. "Uh you knew that the Zerg would do this?"

Aliasse gave her younger Valkyrur sister a nod. "I only knew it was odd the Zerg weren't more aggressive in their attacks. They wanted us to take their territory and now that we're so spread out over the continent we can't defend every base if they were attacked in force. They also probably wanted us to gather our main forces right outside their superhive clusters core zone."

Selvaria took in a deep breath and was about to say something when the intere com barked on. [Commander Irving the Zerg Starfish are moving.]

Aliasse was on the inter comm control in seconds. "Where are they moving?"

There was a pause. [There... moving here? what were detecting a massive number of warpgate signal's right... oh shit! right over the combined forces base.]

"I want everyone on full alert including all the Simulent's and in defensive positions now!"

[Yes ma'am.]

Aliasse turned around and marched to her dresser quickly pulling out a dress uniform and put it on. "Selvaria."

"Yes ma'am!"

"I want you to get to the G-zero and move out. Now," Aliasse said in a stern tone as she zipped up her uniform.

"Yes ma'am."

At the order Selvaria ran out the door and through the command center to the outside where she once again took to the air. Flying to the G-zero's hanger with the u most haste. Upon reaching the hanger the door it's security system recognised her face and unlocked but Selvaria was in a hurry so she used her aura to slam the doors open. Upon entering she saw that the G-zero was all together again with the exception of the main boosters and weapons. Hibiki and Justin stood in front of the Mobile Suit and spun around to the frantic Selvaria who had stopped behind them.

"Who who where's the fire?" Hibiki said just as the base alarm loudly rang out filling the hanger with blaring klaxons. It was something everyone knew about and feared as it means that Zerg got inside the base or was attacking it. "Ok Selvi what's going on?"

"No time get the G-zero ready to fight."

Hibiki sighed accepting that this wasn't the time for an explanation and used her telekinesis to lift the boosters up while rotating the platform the G-zero stood upon. In just a few minutes the upper and lower boosters were fitted on to the G-zero locking themselves onto place. The G-zero rotated again facing forwards.

"Ah. There done," Hibiki said a little winded lifting such heavy equipment.

"Good now I want you and everyone here to get to the command center and stay safe."

Doing as Selvaria asked Hibiki, Justin and technicians all left with a Marine escort. With them gone Selvaria took one last look at G-zero remembering her vision wondering if they'll make it out of the next battle alive. At that moment the G-zero's chest popped open on it's own revealing the cockpit. Selvaria blinked at the odd occurrence wondering if it happened because she wanted it to or if it was Veda. Ever since she had awoken as a Valkyrur before she had felt a odd connection with the G-zero but hadn't thought much of it until now. Jumping into the pilots set she quickly closed the hatch and picked up all the weapons the G-zero had available including the miniaturized MAC cannon which has had little use up to this point.

 **G-zero's cockpit.**

"Ok lets go," she said as the hanger door slid open letting the Humanoid mecha walk out fully loaded with all its gear for once. But what awaited Selvaria on the outside was large scale destruction and chaos. Everywhere she looked people were running and shooting as Zerg overran the base. Cyclops gunned down Roaches. Hydralisk sliced Marines in half. Zerglings spread everywhere like a plague as hey were sliced apart and blasted by Spartans who were slowly turning the tide despite the surprise attack.

"How in the hell did the Zerg get in to the base so quickly?" As she asked the question a hail of Ravager glaives landed on the base some exploding upon the command center where Aliasse was.

For a moment Selvaria held her breath until she realized she could still sense Aliasse. The smoke cleared revealing a massive blue hexagon dome surrounding the command center. It slowly expanded enveloping the area around it forming a defensive fortification from which the surrounding Terran forces rallied around. Terrans easily passed through the dome but Zerg simply slammed against it's interlocking hexagon shell.

Selvaria felt deeply impressed at the shere power that a fully developed Valkyrur like Aliasse held. "Hehe. I guess I'll get that powerful someday."

Not giving her any time to think however a group of Impalers rounded a corner and fired at the G-zero only for their spines to shatter upon impact of it's psi-plating.

"Ok my turn." At her own proclamation Selvaria aimed the Mac cannon at them and fired.

The earsplitting crack of the advanced rail gun launched it's over sized round into the Impaler group. The ones directly in the path of the shell were just gone while the rest were blasted by the overpressure wave from the impact into a million pieces of bloody past spread across the surrounding 70 meters. Feeling good at the kill Selvaria boosted into the sky launching a barrage of multi-warhead missiles at the Zerg in the surrounding area. The hundreds of explosions reduced the Zerg in the are by 20% but there was still a lot more of them.

"Damn where are they all coming from."

[Selvaria behind you!]

The G-zero turned around but Aliasse's warning came too late as a massive blade swung at the airborne mobile suit slicing off a arm knocking G-zero to the ground.

In the cockpit Selvaria groaned in pain from the impact with the ground.

"Aah what the hell, where did that attack come from?"

The answer to Selvarias question came in the form of a massive shadow looming over her. There standing over her stood a colossal Zerg at least a thousand meters long easily dwarfing a Ultralisk in size.

The new Zerg looked like a eight legged Roach with five Hive structures lined up along it's back. The head looked like a cross between a Roach's and a Ultralisks but with dozens of eyes. Waving about on the front and rear most edges of its back were eight long tentacle's each with a Ultralisks Kaizer blade on their tip along with dozens of spine guns, spine crawlers and glaive crawlers running beside the Hive structures in rows. And from below the Super Zerg spewed a constant number of differing types of Zerg falling out of a opening in its belly.

"Shit me what the hell is that!?" Selvaria exclaimed craning her head up to see the small mountain of a Zerg.

 **With Zavara.**

The Brood queen watched from the eyes of the newly completed Hivelisk as the G-zero lost a arm and crashed with but a flick of its tentacles. But it wasn't the only one as there were a total of ten Hivelisks scattered around the continent, all of them destroying all the UNSC's bases one by one as they retake what the swarm had lost. Each one was a mobile Hive cluster that can carry and spawn many Zerg within its body or summon more from another hive cluster with it's Maw of the swarm placed within its belly. This also allows it to warp itself around the battlefield, planet or even to other planet's greatly reducing the risk of being destroyed from orbit and allowing the colossal beast to make surprise attacks right on the enemies door step in the blink of an eye.

Observing the carnage Zavara wondered what the little one would do. "Will you be able to survive Selvaria. Or will you fall to the might of the swarm? I'm greatly interested what you'll do next in the face of your new obstacle?"

 **Chapter End**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21 Rise of the Spartans Final.**

* * *

Comfortably sleeping within the dark confines of the eight person bunk room Spartan Jade platoon Captain Alanna Bannister rested along with seven other Spartans of her platoon.

Silence and shadows rested over them as they recovered from the exhaustion of two days of near constant battle. Granted that most of it was at range but laying down for a long time while correcting aiming errors is still draining even for a Spartan.

With a restful mone Alanna rolled over, scratching her belly, enjoying her sleep. But all that ended when the door was gouged through by a organic blade that let in the light. The scraping noises woke the other Spartans in the room as the door was ripped open little by little as a familiar growling came from the outside.

"Shit a Zergling!" One Spartan exclaimed as said beast looked through the slash in the door.

The Zergling wasn't alone as the shrieks and growls of others of it's kind came from the outside.

"What the hell! how did Zerg get on base?"

"I don't know but let's kill them fast." a female Spartan stated" Captain, Captain," she yelled to the still sleeping Captain Alanna Bannister of Jade platoon.

It was at that moment the door gave way, the narrow room allowing just two Zerglings to enter at a time. One Zergling lunged at the Female spartan only for it to get a super soldier fist to the face breaking bones launching it back into the hallway. The female Spartan shook her bruised hand as another Zergling took its place.

By then the first Zerg had slashed at another Spartan but with his enhanced reflexes he was able to catch both blade arms. He planted a foot on the Zerglings head and pinned it to the ground while two other Spartans started grabbing it's blade arms by the base and with one good tug they ripped said blade arms off. The Zergling pushed up with all it's might while twisting it's head allowing it to get out from under the Spartans foot. It was free for a brief moment before Its head was turned into swiss cheese by another Spartans pistol.

More Zerglings flooded into the room as the two Spartans with the Zergling blades (as makeshift weapons) did their best to fend them off. Meanwhile Captain Bannister was still sound asleep despite THIS going on. Blood flew and limbs were severed as the Zerglings were killed by the blades of one of their own brandished by the Terrans as makeshift weapons. Four. Six, Eight died before they stopped coming in. Taking the opportunity the other Spartans armed themselves with the severed blade arms of the dead Zerglings.

In the next instant a spin flew into the room, then another and another as a Hydralisk stood outside the doorway. Spartans bleed from the spines piercing into their flesh but thinking fast the Spartans grabbed the Zergling bodies and used them as meat shields blocking most of the spines. But they continued to come at a steady rate as the five heads of the Hydralisk shot into the room.

"Shit!" the female Spartans exclaimed as the Spartan with the only gun fired at the Hydralisk from behind a Zergling corpse.

The shots unfortunately were not strong enough to kill the Hydralisk but still able to wound the thing by shooting out its eyes including those of the secondary heads and stun them for a brief moment. It was at that time Captain Bannister finally roused from her sleep and slid out of bed. She yawned looking to her left as her room mates hid behind a wall of zerg bodies.

"Huh?" she exclaimed tiredly half a wake as she tried to piece the situation together. She heard a growl come from her right and turned to the doorway.

"Captain! get to cover," the Spartans yelled as the Hydralisks recovered and shot a spine at Alanna's head.

The spine flew straight to it's target inching ever closer as the slower Terran moved. In the next instant the other Spartans watched as their Captain stood on one leg with her arms and one leg in front of her.

Alanna Bannister was fully awake now as the adrenaline pumped through her body from the near death experience. With gritted teeth she spat one spine out of her mouth and threw the other four she caught in her fingers back at the Hydralisk like throwing knives. All but two piercing the Hydralisks eyes again blinding it. The

Hydralisk shrieked in pain as Alanna sprinted at it slamming her shoulder into its chest cracking the armor plating with shere speed and force. Alanna and the Hydralisk flew into the hallway crashing into the wall, but without pause she grabbed the spine guns on the side of the main head and inverted herself planting her foot on the lower jaw and pushed with her whole body.

A satisfying snap was heard as the organic projectile launchers broke off and Alanna flew backwards. Landing on her feet she hit the ground running and with the speed of a bullet kicked off the floor jabing the two horne like spine guns into the soft flesh between the Hydralisks jaw and neck, ramming the spine guns into the real brain of the Hydralisk.

 _"Good thing I stayed awake for those Zerg anatomy lessons,"_ Alanna Bannister thought as she stood up with a sigh as the Hydrakisk fell limp.

With a very annoyed face she turned back to her roommates. "Ok people hop to these bastards interrupted our beauty sleep so let's show them what the punishment is," Alanna shouted as the others saluted and quickly filled out into the hallway.

The group of half naked super soldiers ran down the hall to the next room where they found the torn bodies of five UNSC personnel, twenty Zerglings and one badly mauled Spartan who was still holding on to the severed arm of a Hydralisk. How the situation went down was a mystery and was irrelevant to the current mission of surviving and figuring out why and how Zerg got into the base.

Captain Bannister knelled before the dead Spartan retrieving his dog tags. She then slid her hand over the Spartans face closing his still open eyes. Grabbing the makeshift weapon that was a Hydralisks blade arm she and the others beat feet quickly marching through the Berrack's to the armory, encountering and ripping through Zerglings and Hydralisk with their makeshift weapons taken off dead Zerg and using their bodies as shields sometimes even live ones.

Eventually they reached the amory and suited up. The complicated and heavy Mjolnir armor was designed to be able to be put on by one person as the situation the Spartans were in at the moment was one of the scenarios Aliasse had thought up when the armor was first designed, so it only took the eight Spartans ten minutes to suit up and arm themselves.

Captain Bannister and her seven Spartans exited the Barracks into a war zone. Aircraft flew over head shooting off their guns and missiles. Tanks, Goliaths and APCs fired their heavy weapons at hords of Zerg trying to swarm them while Marines, Cyclops, Spartans and Simulants joined in the brutal fighting.

"What the *UCK is going on," Captain Bannister stated.

A moment later a explosion blew a inner separating wall to pieces allowing dozen Zerglings to charge through the rubble only to be filled full of hole by Bannister and her group. After reloading the captain contacted command.

"Command this is Captain Bannister of Spartan Jade platoon come in. What the hell! is going on and how do we help plug this shit storm?"

* * *

 **A few minutes earlier.**

Aliasse rushed into her command room. "What's the situation!?"

Without turning around a officer replied. "We have Zerg drop pods landing all over the base."

Then another officer replied. "The pods are coming from Zerg warp gate portals over the base. Their the same as the Space faring Zerg but are deploying ground units."

"We have reports that half of our main bases are under attack all over the continent!" Yet mother officer stated in a panicked tone.

"In coming artillery barrage!" The first officer shouted urgently.

The command center shook and rocked as a heavy barrage of Ravager glaives landed directly on it. The command staff looked around as they thought they were in the after life.

"Everyone ok?" Aliasse asked as they glanced at her.

"I thought we were gonner's," one officer said as she picked herself up

"All systems read ok? it's like we weren't hit by that attack?" one officer stated in confusion.

"I expanded my Aura shield around the Command center." Aliasse explained to them. "I'm expanding it as much as I can. Tell our forces and noncombatants to gather inside of it. So long as they move through it slowly I can let them in while keeping out the Zerg."

"Uh yes ma'ma" one officer replied as he sent the orders.

* * *

 **Some minutes earlier.**

Justin, Hibiki, Tom and the other two technicians ran out of the hanger meeting three Cyclops. All the Warthogs and other vehicles had been taken by the soldiers fighting back the Zerg invasion of destroyed.

"Hop on we'll take you out of here," one Cyclops pilot said as he kneeled down placing arm horizontally so Justin and Hibiki could sit on it. They obliged the Cyclops escort and sat on the exosuits arm. "Hang on tightly" the pilot's said as the exosuit stood up.

Once they were all on board the three Cyclops broke into a dead sprint running for the nearest shelter which happened to be close to the main command center. They passed wrecked Warthogs, half melted APC's and many blooded bodies some belonging to Simulent's and Zerg but most were Terran. Hibiki on reflex grabbed onto Justin's shirt and buried her face into his chest in attempted to avert her eyes from the blood and death that surrounded her.

As they rounded a corner the ground exploded as a pair of alpha Roach's showed its fanged maw and spewing their deadly acid. The three Cyclops barely dodged in time and unloaded their rifle's into the Roach's perforating them with holes and blasting a few legs off. Then a Group of Hydralisk pealted the heavy armor of the Cyclops from behind and this also got them shredded like the Roach's.

With the distractions dealt with they returned to their mission but as they did a giant shadow blocked out the sun light above. Justin looked up to see a massive warp gate at least a mile wide expanding nearly over them. It was mostly behind them but Justin could still see 1/3rd of it from his angle of view. Then a giant form appeared from out of it. Eight legs connected to a massive body.

In the sky close by the G-zero hovered showering the surrounding area with missiles. Some landing close by and others far away. The G-zero hovered there a moment as the massive Zerg landed on the ground with a great crash that created a shock wave.

"Brace for impact," the Cyclops pilots said as they stopped and kneeled wrapping their rifle arm around their occupants.

The shock wave slammed into the three Cyclops knocking them forwards on their knees but still they carefully embraced the noncombatants they protectively carried. The shockwave passed and the Group recovered. Hibiki and the rest gave a exhalation of relief as the Cyclops stood back up. But then there was a loud crash and something heavy and large landed near by smashing into a Vehicle factory caving half of it in. Hibiki and Justin stared at the familiar object for what seemed like forever in shock but the Cyclop pilots didn't wait for them to come to their senses and left. Tom glanced back at the object recognising it as one of the G-zero's arms.

* * *

 **With Selvaria**

Selvaria groaned in pain as she looked at the massive new Zerg breed looming over her. It's psi-armor reinforced bladed tentacles waving menacingly in the air.

"Ah damn what the hell is that thing?"

[Unknown New Zerg organizam. Size and weapons suggest larger and more powerful land based version of Behemoth.] Vade answered as best it could just as some of the spine gunes on the Hivelisks flank aimed at the G-zero.

"Ok time to move," She said noticing the guns aim at her.

Selvaria acted in just the nick of time as a dozen spines impacted the ground where the G-zero was just seconds ago. Boosting away the G-zero turned around firing it's mac cannon at the Hivelisk. The high velocity rounds slammed into the thick carapace armor creating smoke and dust from the projectiles vaporising dew to their own speed and force. The smoke cleared revealing no damage had been done.

"Damn the thing must have high level psi-armor. The thing really is a walking Behemoth," Selvaria cursed. A beep took her attention as a screen blinked on showing the G-zero's left arm laying on top a Factory along with the mini valkof beam cannon.

"That should do something at least."

Selvaria boosted down flying over the ground and extended her aura through the G-zero and out the left arm stump forming a aure arm. The Hivelisk took more interest in the G-zero and fired glaives at it.

The G-zero rushed across the ground shooting of some intercepter mini-missiles. The glaives exploded as the G-zeros aura arm reached out grabbing the giant arm and the mini-Valkof. Selvaria quickly shifted her aura into the severed arm shifting it around so it once again attached to the G-zeros arm stump but held in place by the aura. Vade reconnected to the beam cannons firing systems via wireless connection and the weapon once again was online.

Giving a smile of hope Selvaria boosted around the Hivelisk aiming the weapon at the glaive launchers. The trigger was pressed and the beam fired cutting a swath of destruction across the Hivelisks back destroying a dozen glaive and spine cannons. Selvaria smiled again at the destruction she caused. But in the next instant all the weapons on the Hivelisk's back aimed at the G-zero.

"Evasion recommended," Vade said flatly with a tone of urgency.

"Shit," Selvaria exclaimed as a forest of glaives and spines launched at her.

The G-zero boosted up, down, side to side dancing through the sky taking pot shots at the mobile Zerg fortress between the flurries of attacks.

* * *

 **Meanwhile with Captain Bannister and her group of Spartans**

Zerglings and Hydralisk along with Roach's charged into a parking lot now a junkyard covered in scrapped vehicles. Behind all the destroyed tanks and APC's Marines and Spartans fired from out of their cover dowing half the attacking Zerg but the rest got in close slashing and biting as they were blasted by shotgun fire.

As the melee continued Spartans rushed in breaking necks and crushing skulls, cleaving Zerg apart with their psi-blades. Captain Bannister jumped over a Scorpion tank landing on a Hydralisk back and with one strong slash bisected the ranged Zerg.

Command had told her to save some Marines in the are before getting to the dome shield but everything turned south as more Zerg just keep coming.

A instant latter a Roach blasted her with a acid shower. The burning liquid washed over the psi-reinforced armor like water off a duck's back but ate at the exposed gapes in her armor. But Alanna wasn't done yet as she reacted instinctively throwing her psi-blade at the Roach impaling its main brain. The Captain of Jade platoon then leaped on the newly created corpse jerking the psi-blade out and with a quick flick cleaned the blade of the gore covering it.

"Ahaaa," In a pained grown she breathed in and out as she started feeling the acid eat through her suits outer layer.

Gun fire continued blazing around her as dozens of Zerg jumped at her taking advantage of her moment of weakness only to be were cut down. Breathing in Alanna looked in the direction of the gunfire. Reinforcements exited the blue dome shield surrounding what was becoming the UNSC last bastion at the forward base.

"Captain!" Lindsay Upton shouted to his platoon captain as he and dozens of other Jade platoon Spartans rushed to their wounded platoon leader.

"Lindsay, *pained grown* I need anti acid coating now!"

Without hesitation Lindsay reached into one of his packs pulling out a tube of gel. Quickly twisting the top off as he reached Alanna he applied the gel on the parts of her suit that showed near breaches counteracting the acid before it could eat it's way any further.

While that was happening the reinforcements focused their fire on the Zerg pushing them back and dealing heavy casualties. This gave the other trapped Marines and Spartans in the parking lot time to fall back to the dome while Lindsay's group provided cover fire. As they passed through the dome the Zerg rushed at them but simply rammed against the dome shield clawing and shooting it.

"Damn what the hell. I thought the Zerg were on the defensive?" one Marine asked.

"Me too and now they bring out that damned giant thing," another Marine said pointing to the Hivelisk off in the distance as a blue blur shot at it.

"That's the G-zero right?" Captain Bannister asked seeing the mech fight the massive Zerg.

"Yeah but I don't think it will last to long on its own. Not against that thing," Lindsay replied.

Alanna Bannister made a irritated grown but then started thinking and then made a wicked grin as she turned to Lindsay. "Hay are the other Spartan platoons in here with us?"

Lindsay glanced at his captan. "Uh yes. I've seen members of Obsidian and Sapphire in here along with the member's of others. Why?" he asked hoping his captain didn't have another one of her crazy ideas.

Minutes later all the captains of Jade, Sapphire and Jade platoons were gathered in the the command centers command room with a strained Aliasse listening in. While the other Spartans of their platoons were out side still holding off the Zerg in other parts of the base and continuing to rescue trapped or stranded survivors.

"Ok whats this plan of yours?" Captain Hamilton asked.

Captain Bannister took a step forward. "It's simple. We grab one of those havok nuks and shove it down the big Zergs throat." The moment the words left her mouth everyone in the room started talking or shaking their heads.

That was almost all of them. Harriette Ness was the only one to speak for the plane.

"I like it. Simple and to the point."

"Are you nuts? Have you seen how big and well armored that thing is. Not to mention the flood of Zerg reinforcements pouring out from it's gut. "Christopher one of the new members in Sapphire platoon stated.

"Ok ok let's all act civil," Manfred Alduino stated cooling the tension.

"Before we decide anything more let's hear Captain Bannisters explanation on her plan." Captain Hamilton stated.

"Thank you." Alanna said as she used her neural implant to send a 3d image of the Hivelisk to the holo screen. "Ok we all know the big guy is way too strong to take on using normal means. Even the G-zero is having a hard time taking it on all alone. But like anything big it has a weakness." The image zoomed in to show the under belly from which more Zerg are coming. "That belly is wide open and perfect to lob a Havok into."

Hamilton hummed in thought. "I understand your plan but even if we get under it and fire a nuke inside that hole anything strong enough to destroy it will also destroy the base as well."

Upon hearing the one big problem in her plan Alanna sighed conceding the point.

Aliasse hummed in thought. "I think the Zerg reinforcements aren't coming from inside the new massive Zerg but are actually coming through a portal like the ones that dropped the first wave of drop pods. I can sense a psionic energy source emanating from inside that thing."

Everyone thought a moment, then Catherine Ashton another new member of Sapphire platoon spoke up.

"If that's the case we can strike at the heart of the Zerg hive cluster and take out their leaders. And I have a idea on how to do it. But it's really crazy. We'll have to use the prototype Ragnit-bomb."

Alanna nodded. "I can do crazy. What about you all?"

All the Spartans in the room glanced around knowing full well the potential. Some wondering what fresh hell they'er in for while others resigned themselves to the possibility of death through crazy plan. But it was still better than sitting in the dome waiting for it to drop.

All the Spartans raised their hands accepting the plan in it's entirety as Aliasse told her command staff to get the prototype Ragnit bomb from out from its lab in the Command center.

* * *

 **In orbit UNSC Infinity.**

It was only a few minutes but in that time the war shifted its probable outcome as Zerg started appearing all over the place and right inside UNSC bases. Simulants were doing their best to stall the invasion of many bases but the suddenness of the attacks and those giant mile long land Behemoths whatever their called were devastating the defensive position's of the UNSC bases and their defenders. Luckily from reports on the surface and orbital scans there were only ten of such creatures. But that was enough to completely reverse the war.

"Fire!" Captain Pesaro ordered.

The ship shook as the port side Mac's fired. The rounds screamed through the atmosphere like a blazing astroid but yet again they we'er stopped by those giant Starfish that had moved into position ten miles over the new breed of Zerg. Blocking the fleet in orbit from using their most destructive weapons on them. The reports weren't looking good as a few bases were being overwhelmed and would fall in just a half hour if not sooner.

"Athena can we at least launch a missile barrage on them?" The captain asked not fully confident in the pinpoint accuracy of such an attack.

"We can but the explosive blasts from the warheads will have a larger damage radius then the Macs. If you don't mind shooting our own forces we can launch a full barrage. Also from the reports were getting the new Zerg can somehow summon reinforcements from a organ under its belly."

Captain Pesaro cursed under his breath lamenting the loss of communication with the admirals. He had to make a call that could be the death sentence for many UNSC personnel. Does he risk their lives over the chance to strike at the new Zerg breed or does he wait. The tension in the bridge was thick enough to cut. But he had to decide.

With a sigh he made his decision. "Fire on all the new Zerg breeds. Full missile barrage," the Infinites captain ordered in a tone of voice filled with regret.

The bridge crew hesitated but for a brief moment before carrying out the order.

Missile tubes all over the orbiting fleet opened up before ushering forth a barrage of guided death. While at full power the Mac cannons are far more powerful than missiles the velocity of the MACs can be changed lowering the destructive blast range of the impact point. But the warheads of missiles can't be changed like that so when they hit they hit at full power. This means a portion of the UNSC bases that many Terrans are currently fighting in will be destroyed. Or at least the areas around the new Zerg breed will be demolished.

Countless missiles fell like fiery raindrops from the heavens. All guided to their ultimate targates. The missiles rained down towards the clusters of Giant Zerg Starfish hovering over the Hivelisk's. The missiles swerved in between the Starfish as they avoided the Zerg defense line in the sky. Further down the missiles fell making final adjustments to their trajectory.

Like exploding rain the barrage of missiles impacted the ten Hivelisk spread over the continent.

* * *

"In coming orbital barrage!" Vade warned.

The G-zero banked hard right boosting to it's maximum speed for five seconds as the missiles impacted covering the mile long Hivelisk in a cloud of fire and smoke. Minutes passed as the cloud slowly dissipated. But looking onwards Selvaria cursed again seeing the structures on the beast's back were heavily damaged but the main body was still intact.

"Fuck!" Selvaria exclaimed as she noticed it wasn't completely protected my psi-armor.

A comm window showing Aliasse blinked on one of the side screens.

[Selvaria I want you to get inside the dome. We have a plan to take that thing down but we need you here] Aliasse stated as a order.

"Roger," Selvaria replied as she dodged more spine and glaive fire.

* * *

 **A few minutes later in the dome.**

The Spartan platoons Captain's and Selvaria all stood around the landed G-zero as Captain Bannister told her of the plan.

"I see. So that's what you cooked up," Selvaria said remembering her part in the plane.

"Can you do it?" asked Captain Hamilton.

Selvaria hummed as she thought. "Hmmm. Yeah it's doable but can you guys handle the Zerg dropping out from the big guy's belly while I keep it distracted."

"Their are enough of us so it should work." Jonathan replied as the other Spartans around them readied their weapons.

"Ok it's done. Your all repaired and rearmed, " Hibiki yelled as she Justin and the other tech's finished reattaching the severed arm of the G-zero using MCV's and the Command centers fabrication systems.

Selvaria turned back to Hamilton with a question. "I could plant the bomb myself."

"I no doubt know that you can but we can't always rely on that Mobile suit of yours for every problem," Hamilton replied.

"Yeah and we Spartans have to pull our own weight as well," Mimi Rose stated matter factly as she beat her chest.

The silver haired valkyrur shrugged smiling. "Hah your right. I'll cover you as best as I can," she said as she formed two aura arms and lifted herself up into the cockpit.

The G-zero now fully repaired stood up and took a step forward as Marines and Spartans moved aside allowing the G-zero to walk to the edge of the dome. Outside thousands of Zerg clamored around the blue semi-transparent shield. Selvaria opened a comm window to Aliasse who looked very weak from exhausting so much of her power on the dome shield that now protected every surviving person in the base.

"You ok commander Irving?"

Aliasse gave a tired sigh. [Huh. Yes i'm fine. Maybe you should be more worried for your part in this operation.]

Selvaria made a false smile. "Haha. I'm good. Let's get back to earth and have some exotic food when were done."

[Sounds good your buying.]

Selvaria spoke to protest but stopped simply sighing. "Sure my treat."

[He he. I'll be waiting.]

The comm window blinked off and Selvaria readied herself. The G-zero started up it's boosters and hovered up a few meters before flying straight up. The top of the dome shield opened long enough for the mecha to fly through before closing again. As the G-zero ascended It's pilot looked down at the literal carpet of Zerg that covered half the mile wide dome that now protected the remaining base personnel.

"Ok let's do this."

Selvaria aimed both the Beam and MAC cannons at the Zerg covered ground below and fired sweeping the beam along the gathered Zergs left flank vaporising them just before some Impalers fired at her. The MAC shells slammed into the Zerg forces right flank like man astroid's blasting hundreds of Zerg into past from the explosive force of the impacts. The G-zeros third attack came in the from of a barrage of missiles that blanketed a wide area. Selvaria looked at her handy work satisfied at its completion.

 _"I hope the others are doing just as well,"_ Selvaria though as she turned the G-zero to the regenerating Hivelisk still at it's original position. The damage from the orbital attack did a number on the Hive like structures on the back and the defensive weapons but in just a half an hour most of the damage had been repaired.

"Round two big guy."

The G-zero boosted forwards as the Hivelisk recognised a incoming attack and started shooting any of its available weapons. G-zero evaded flying up and evading left, down, right and up again while firing both MAC and Beam cannons. The shots landed along the left side of the living mobile fortress destroying most of the sacs containing the new glaive launchers and spine guns before they ever became a threat.

In response the Hivelisk fired the Glaives from it's other side. It took the glaives more time to fly around to the other side but they were a serious threat as their numbers forced Selvaria to retreat and fire anti missile countermeasures. But still a few glaives got through, two impacting the shield thanks to their sheer numbers. The damage was far more than what Selvaria expected as half the shield was ruined by the bio explosions and acid but still usable for a few more hit's.

 _"Damn if I didn't recover the shield I would have taken a lot more damage."_ Selvaria thought as she continued to evade the oncoming glaives.

On the ground the Marines and Spartans of Jade, Obsidian and Sapphire platoons along with the remaining Simulants were in the middle of a hectic melee. A group of Hydralisk fired on a group of Warthogs as their chain guns started roaring. The gun fire cut the Hydralisk down and then was focused on a group of Banlings detonating them prematurely.

A Marine jumped out of the way as a Zergling pounced at him emptying his clip into it's head. But there are always more Zerglings and ten more took its place as they charged at him full speed only for a barrage of grenades to explode around them. Impalers shot their spines at the Warthogs impaling them with their oversized spines.

Just as one Warthog exploded a pair of Simulant Ultralisks newly constructed charged into battle using their cannons and blades to cut a swath of death across the battlefield. Roaches exploded, Zerglings were crushed under foot, Hydralisks were beheaded by Spartans. Using the two Simulant juggernaut's as spearheads the Marines charged forward in controlled and planned formation's while the Spartans protected their flanks. Each soldier doing his/her best to counter the sheer numbers they were up against all to give the strike team time to get into position.

 **With Special strike group.**

A small select group consisting of a dozen member's from the three Spartan platoons all the marched with the upmost stealth as they moved through the devastated base passing bodies of every type be they Terran, Zerg or Simulant. The elite group marched with purpose as a Zergling hopped onto a ruined Warthog and was promptly shot with a triple shot burst of silenced shot gunfire the silencer prevented the echo from traveling to far.

"Are we there yet," Harriette joked.

"No," Hamilton replied in a irritated manner.

"We still have 800 meters before we reach the target point," Reginald stated.

"More running less talking people. The faster we finish this the faster we all go home," Captain Bannister said motivating everyone to hoof it.

They rounded a corner and ran right into a mixed group Roaches, Zerglings and two Impalers. The Spartans reacted like lightning shooting the nearest targets in their weak points as others switched to their psi-blades to quickly cut the Roaches apart. The Impalers fired at the Spartans only to have their spines deflected by the blades. Four Spartans charged the Impalers swiftly dodging their lethal slash's but the Psi-blades swiftly cut through their arms and armor and in seconds and after the Impalers resembled chopped lobsters served on a platter only looking more haphazardly arranged.

The Spartans continued their way jogging passed destroyed Factories, empty Barracks, and through a airfield of forever downed aircraft as they neared their objective when Mimi Rose noticed a intact Scorpion.

"Hey guy's that looks usable."

"Zula check it out." Hamilton said.

Zula did as ordered as the others formed a defensive ring around the MBT. And it was a good thing too as Twenty Zerglings came running out from nowhere but were easily cut down with controlled bursts of gunfire. The Scorpions engine roared to life as it hovered a few meters off the ground. Without wasting time all of the Spartans jumped onto the Tank. Inside the control chair Zula smiled. She had always wanted to drive one of these in combat.

"Room for two," Harriette said as she took the gunners seat.

Thanks to the neural interface it only took one person to control a Scorpion and most other UNSC ground vehicles. It also acted as a security measure against anyone not in the UNSC and preventing the hijacking any of military ordinance.

The ride was smooth and fast as the hover tank glided over the wreckage of other vehicles on the roadway. After a brief trip they finally reached the blasted zone around the feet of the Hivelisk as they easily floated over the craters formed from the fleets attempt at destroying the Mobile fortress. Unfortunately that was also when the Spartans luck seemed to run out as the Zerg guarding the legs of the Hivelisk attacked. Hydralisk in the hundreds's shot a sustained barrage of spines while waves of Zerglings charged forwards their fangs dripping for blood and Roach's remained behind keeping to their purpose of defending the exposed underbelly of the Hivelisk.

And it was then the G-zero intervened blasting the Zerg ground forces with a barrage of full power shots from the mini Mac and beam cannon. The calamitous attack reduced the numbers of ground Zerg to less than one third their original numbers giving the Spartans on the ground a fighting chance.

The Spartans opened fire with all of their weapons as the Scorpion's main gun barked to life, once, twice three times ushering forth fire and lightning as it sent a high explosive rounds into the remaining Roaches ranks killing two dozen along with half that many Hydralisk. Zula felt the charging Zerglings were getting to close so she made a hard right after giving a proper warning. "Hold on to your asses!"

The Spartans held on for dear life as the Scorpion swarved right and accelerated with the stupidly fast Zerglings right on their heel's. Harriette turned the main gun around loading a high explosive defusion shell. She gave a pleased smile as she pulled the trigger.

In a wide area the ground behind the Scorpion MBT exploded making the tank buck from the blast wave. The Spartans looked back seeing half the chasing Zerglings leap out from the dust cloud looking even madder if that was even possible. The half the Spartans continued shooting at the Zerglings reducing the Zerglings numbers further. While the other half kept firing at the Hydralisks who were still shooting at the lone Tank as it neared the open ground below the Hivelisk. It seemed the orbital bombardment combined with Selvaria and the G-zeros two attacks from earlier had depleted the Zergs numbers giving the Spartans a opening.

But that was to easy. As if snatching victory from their hands a Ultralisk unburrowed right in front of the tank forcing Zula to make a hard turn throwing a few Spartans off. Katherine, Christopher, and Amber quickly hoped to their feet shooting down the Zerglings while the Ultralisk Chased after the Others on the tank leaving them alone for the moment.

*Gunfire* "Head for that building!" Katherine yelled as she blew a Zergling into two halves.

"That ruin won't provide much cover," Christopher stated as they broke into a dead sprint.

"It's better then standing out in the open," Amber noted as she shot down another Zergling.

The three rookies of Sapphire platoon jogged across the open ground taking pot shots at any Zerg that got in range. While they were running for cover Zula and Harriette were dealing with the Ultralisk on their backs.

*Loud thundering footsteps behind the Scorpion MBT.*

"It looks angry!" Harriette said as she aimed the main gun at the Ultralisks head and fired. The shell impacted the Zergs head exploding it's armored forehead but since the brain was farther in the body the damage was minor but the pain motivated the great beast to increase it's pace feeling the need to ground the Terrans into paste sooner.

"You think!" Zula exclaimed as she made another hard right then a hard left around one of the Hivelisks feet. The Ultralisk continued chasing them with absolute determination.

"Zula. Can you keep that thing distracted long enough for us to do our job?" Hamilton asked as he shot down another two Hydralisks.

"Yeah. Just make sure to send the Zerg a postcard for me," she replied.

Hamilton and the other Spartans gathered on the front of the tank as it neared the circle of Zerg that were defending the opening on the underside of the Hivelisk. Spines shot at them in a thick hail that pressed against their Psi-plating armor. Although the spines simply deflected off the Spartans armor the tank wasn't so lucky as it's surface not blocked by the Spartans was nearly saturated buy the spines sticking out of it. If it wasn't for the upgrades in armor the tank would have been destroyed a while ago but now at least it just looked like a hairy tank covering in many quills.

"Now!" Hamilton exclaimed as he and the others jumped off as the Tank was passing the remains of a building.

The Spartans hide while Zula and Harriette continued distracting the Ultralisk with more cannon for to the face. The Ultralisk roared in even more anger as it started firing it's spines but dew to the tanks hovering speed and Zulas driving skill they managed to avoid serious damage. Spines continued flying at the Scorpion tank as it weaved side to side firing again and again at the Ultralisk.

Meanwhile Hamilton and the others took out the Zerg guards in the circle from their position under cover. Katherine Christopher and Amber also joined in the attack sniping from the small building they were hunkered down in after dealing with the Zerglings. One by one the Hydralisks and Roach's fell until only a few remained but all of them needed to be taken care of before the Bomb was fired safely.

In the air Selvaria continued to keep the Hivelisk distraced blasting it's regrowing defensive structures one after the other while dodging a full barrage of spines and glaives from the ones that remain.

Boosting up and side to side Selvaria flew in a circle around the mobile fortress before boosting up over top it.

"Time to take a little off the top," Selvaria quipped maneuvering the G-zero over the neck while firing both the Mac and Beam cannons.

The shots focused on one spot blasted the psi-armor enhanced chitin away piece by piece until there was a opening in the main armor plating. Seeing the weak spot Selvaria unfolded the small shield blade and with the speed and swiftness of a bride of prey she descended quickly boosting left then right avoiding the deadly wiping tentacles and their blades.

The psi-plating reinforced blade collided with the wound cutting a gash through the Hivelisks neck but left only a meger cut. Shrieking in a ungodly cry the Hivelisk started wiping its tentacles around in a more furiously, striking piercing and lashing out at the fly buzzing around it.

G-zero was clipped on the leg just as it left the melee range jerking Selvaria around.

"Ah! Nice try but take this."

Stabilising in mid air she returned the favor sending a half dozen Mac shells slamming into the Hivelisks head.

Just then scores of Impalers appeared out from the base of the Hivelisks hive structures and took up firing positions along it's back.

[High number of Impalers present. Suggest evasion] Vade stated.

Just as Sevaria boosted left a hail of spines flew past where she was just a moment ago and continued zipping through the air as the G-zero evaded boosting up, left and around. The sky dance drew the spines all across the sky as the Beam cannon finished charging.

A beam cut across the Hivelisk back as the Spartans below continued their own battle.

Zula using the hover tanks ability to slide sideways avoided yet another spine that impaled itself into the ground. The tanks main gun fired once, twice, three times creating as many craters in the Ultralisks chest armor. With a pained roar the Ultralisk stopped chasing the much faster Terran tank around and focused its aim on the single target.

"Shit! hold on," Zula warned as she gunned the hover engine accelerating and changing direction even faster more than before.

Harriette held on for dear life as they slammed into the short forest of spines that the Ultralisk had left behind during their chase. The tank bucked and jared around as it slammed into the spines at high velocity one after the other as more spines landed ever closer as the Ultralisk got increasingly better at predicting the Terrans movements.

One spine clipped the rear hover track pod of the Scorpion sending them into a tailspin fore a few seconds before Zula regained control. "Ok you want to play hard ball let's play hardball!"

With her mind made up Zula turned the tank around and made a beeline for the Ultralisk. "Harriette shoot!"

Not having much choice she aimed at the same time the Ultralisk did. Spines and shells crossed paths midair as each flew for their respective targets. One, two three, four, five, shots rang out as the Scorpion tank fired away. A spine planted itself into the tanks left rear track pod as Zula slid the tank sideways left then right then left, left and right avoiding most of the Spines even with the slower response time. The velocity and force of the impacts threw the Ultralisk aim off allowing the two Spartans the time they needed to drive right under the beast.

The Ultralisk turned to the side trying to retarget the Terran vehicle but this just put it into the very position Harriette was waiting for.

The Scorpion tanks mini mac cannon fired four times in eight seconds blasting both the Ultralisks. Harriette pulled the trigger again and again sending shells slamming into the knee joints of the two right legs.

The damage threw the Ultralisk off balance dropping it to its knees and opening a window of opportunity that was not going to be wasted. Harriette continued firing as Zula maneuvered around to the back giving a unobstructed view of the under side of the Ultralisk armored crest right where it meets the spine.

*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*clik*clik*

The ammo on the main cannon finley ran out as the Ultralisk dropped dead a clear hole bored through it from the back to its front where the head used to be.

"Wow damn." Zula exclaimed breathing a sigh of relief."That actually worked."

"Ok can we get back to the others now," Harriette complained as she laid back in her set.

* * *

 **Back with Hamilton and the others.**

Katherine, Christopher and Amber ran up to Mimi as she and the others gunned down the last of the Zerg defenders. Low on ammo and with a few wounds.

"Is it all over?" Amber asked.

"Not on your life now form a defensive circle," Lindsay replied as he reloaded.

Captains Bannister, Hamilton, and Jonathan all gathered around the havoc nuke launcher which was a modified missile launcher with one barrel. Alanna herself had the honor to aim the launcher at the underbelly of the Hivelisk but as soon as she did the underbelly opened revealing a circle of claws. The space between them rippled and glowed as a warpgate opened and spewed forth a green tide of banlings that instead of exploding bounced as they hit the ground. The pile of living bombs quickly ridded themselves and started rolling toward's the Spartans.

"We'll hold them off, just shoot that nuke!" Hamilton shouted as he and every other Spartans present shot at the rolling green tide.

With a sigh Captain Bannister deactivated the final safeties for the prototype war head and shouldered it. Gunfire and shrieking roars surrounded her as the sniper entered her zone of focus banishing all distractions from her mind. She aimed the launcher and placed her finger over the trigger. A breath left her lungs as she took one last moment to calculate the launch angle and pulled the trigger. The missile jetted out flying at the Hivelisk's undebelly and right into the warpgate.

* * *

 **Meanwhile in the Zerg core hive cluster.**

Zavara stood on a balcony overlooking the vast dome of the underground hive cluster encircling the main Maw of the Swarm structures arranged in the center. She sensed a object fly back through the center portal sensing it also had a psionic presence, some of the Overseers in the domed cavern also detected radioactive elements and others that the Terrans use in their fusion bombs. Knowing that this is a bad combination Zavara ordered the evacuation of all Queens and Brood queens. All across the Core Hive cluster hundreds of warp gates opened linking back to the Zerg capital allowing the Zerg command breeds that were not as replaceable as the other fodder Zerg to evacuate.

This too had been a planned event as it was always good to have a escape plan in case something goes wrong or anything unexpected happens. And in this case a Ragnit enhanced mini fusion bomb had been sent through the two way warp gates from a Hivelisk to the center of the Swarms remaining super Hive cluster. A scenario that Ellen had thought up after the new form of travel was invented and after word had every brood queen practice emergency evacuation drills. Training that proved to be very beneficial in this situation.

A scenic overhead view of the remaining Super hive cluster showed a network of concentric circles consisting of a hundred chitin domes, each a mile wide and half a mile high and covered in defensive structures. Many thousands of Zerg gathered in the few flat areas between them and Mutalisk, Overseers, Overlords and other flying Zerg in the air over the Hive cluster.

*BOOOOM!*

In a instant a large portion of the Super hive clusters core zone was enveloped in a light that burned away everything. The Zerg were turned into burnt statues before being blown away by the shockwave. The domes not enveloped by the light were burnt black as the chitin was turned into charcoal and they too became dust in the wind as the overwhelming power of the Ragnit- Fusion bomb vaporized more than 78% of the remaining Super hive cluster.

The orbiting fleet of the UNSC bore witness to the first use of a weapon of absolute last resort as it remade the continent yet again.

Back with the Spartans for a brief second a massive blast of energy shot out from the warp gate within the Hivelisk a moment before it was destroyed sending the Spartans all flying backwards in a overpowering blast wave of superheated air. The Hivelisk gave a pained roar as it crumpled to the ground with a rather large hole in its torso. And high above the Starfish started falling out of the air.

Selvaria watched the scene playout from the sky. "Vade scan for survivors!"

A few seconds passed before the dumb AI replied. [All Spartans have survived but most are unconscious or severely wounded]

Selvaria gave a sigh of relief as she flew down to the ground. Using the G-zero she collected the Spartans up off the ground carefully placing them in one spot while a number of Falcons and Pelicans transports arrive some with red crosses colored on their sides.

[G-zero this is Evac-92 are their any survivors?]

Selvaria turned to the incoming air support on her screen. "Yes and they need medical treatment ASAP."

[Roger we'll zzzz]

Cutting Evac-92 off a tentacle flicked out from the Hivelisk smashing the aircraft out of the air as a ear piercing roar bellowed from the beast as it rows up onto it's legs. The beast started moving it's legs. Selvaria watched in horror as the mile long beast now started walking as if in slow motion lumbering towards Aliasse's Dome and the command center where all the survivors had gathered. Each step of its giant legs crushed multiply buildings under foot as it made its frenzied march towards its target.

"Damnt! It's gone feral," Selvaria said as she flew right in front of the marching land behemoth and started firing into it's head.

The shots struck the Hivelisks right eye making the monster roar even more loudly as it continued it's march for the dome. One step crushed a Hanger and two others flattened a group of Barracks and a third pancaked a group of Supply depot's as a cloud of dust and dabri blew behind the marching mountain.

A view screen blinked on the G-zeros display showing Aliasse. [Selvaria your the only one that can take that thing out.]

"I know that damn't! I just can't do enough damage before it hits you!" she shouted in a panicked tone.

[Yes you can. Just keep holding back and use your full power.]

"But. But. What if the G-zero can't handle it?"

Aliasse breathed in and out giving herself more confidence to give Selvaria more confidence. [Don't worry. Have faith in the machine your friends built. And yourself as a pilot and a Valkyrur.]

Selvaria gave a shocked face as calmed down and took in a breath of fresh and and breathed out. "Ok... here I go then," her voice still unsure of how this will go.

Selvaria flew directly in front of Aliasses aura dome and landed at the base facing the charging Hivelisk. She pumped more of her own psionic power into G-zero. The RN Drive glowed more intensely than it had ever had before as it's energy over flowed spilling into the rest of the humanoid frame. The excess built up in the G-zeros body increased the power level of it's Psi-plating effect by 2 whole levels going from level 2 to 4. This also had a secondary effect of making the G-zero glow red. With her own psionic energy over flowing through the G-zero Selvaria disconnected the Mac cannon and mini Valkof beam cannon from the back of the arms moving them around with her aura in front of the G-zero combining them together into a single frame made from her own aura. The MAC on top with the Valkof below.

"Ok let's see how you take this!"

The MAC shell in the barrel was infused with even more power then the armor so much in fact it that it would have broke down if it wasn't for the psi-plating reinforcing it. The mini-Valkof beam cannon became overcharged with energy glowing red as it started giving off excess heat and energy that was then contained in a sheathing of aura that reinforced the body of the Valkof. Selvaria put half of her total power into the two weapons and the rest into keeping them from blowing up as she formed aura handles on their combined frame and extended it around the G-zero forming four bracing legs to the side and behind. The bracing legs ancored the G-zero an it's new combination weapon into the ground as the barrel of the weapon wa elevated upwards to the quickly approaching Hivelisk.

The beast gave out another bellowing roar as its front left leg landed within a hundred meters of the dome. It's bladed tentacles continuing their maddened random strikes that pulverised the surrounding buildings.

Selvaria breathed in and out one last time sweeting as the strain of focusing on controlling her own power and that of the G-zero. Vade was spouting warning about system malfunctions and a overload but Selvaria let all of it wash over her as she focused on her one task. "Here I go."

Selvaria pulled the trigger just as she came into melee range of the rampaging Hivelisk and it's only remaining weapons the kaiser blade tentacles which were aimed and flying at her. In the next moment a few things happened.

The infused MAC shell flew out of the barrel at twice the velocity it would normally be limited too dew to the physics warping effects of Psionic energy.

And the Valkof discharged it's gathered power into a massive beam the was nearly the same width as the Hivelisk and quickl caught up to and hit the back of the MAC shell accelerating it even faster.

The impact from the MAC shell was so powerful it lifted the target up a few dozen meters as it and the beam impacted the Hivlisk right below its neck and between the two front legs at a forty degree angle and for a few mili-seconds the level two psi-armor reinforced Hivelisk held but was no match for the energy it was facing as the psionic energy in the MAC shell released vaporizing the shell and sent a psionic shock wave through the Hivelisk body shattering it's armor and bones. Then the beam slashed through the torso gutting it nearly stem to stern.

The Hivelisk stood for a few seconds silent as a statue even from the elevated position it was in. But as time ticked by gravity pulled it down making a rumbling noise as it descended. Landing in a momentus crash that shook the lands for miles.

As the Great beast fell the G-zeros improvised weapons fell apart or into melted slag heaps from the overwhelming energy that flowed through them. Even the G-zero looked melted in a few places as the aura bracing the G-zero dissipated allowing it to fall onto it's back as the heat radiated from it's body like a blast furnace. The chest popped open and an exhausted and burning up Selvaria stepped out rolling off the wrecked Mobile Suit.

"Ahhh hot! hot! hot!" she exclaimed laying on the ground in exhaustion and breathing heavily to cool off.

She laid there for a few minutes letting the heat escaped her body but before long she heard the sounds of a vehicle roll up to her. The sound of a concerned Hibiki and a frantic Justin calling out to her was the last thing she heard before losing consciousness.

* * *

In the shadow of Alpha Centuries moon a Tal'darim ship drifted over the moon scape as Amon and Narud watched the Terrans victory.

 **"This is a little concerning,"** Narud stated as Amon grumbled lost in thought.

 **"We will collect some of the Terrans tech so the war between them and the Covenant will not be so easy for them,"** Amon said already changing his plans little by little.

Narud steepled fingers as he turned from the screen showing the dead Hivelisk from a Observers point of view. **"Shall I kill the two Valkyrur ?"**

Amon gave a disapproving growl. **"No. Not yet. We'll continue to observe for now. They may in fact be useful in the future.** **Especially the one called Selvaria. HE,HE,HE.** **"**

* * *

After the destruction of the First feral Hivelisk by Selvaria and the G-zero the rest fell soon after from orbital bombardment by the UNSC fleet who could now use their Mac-cannons now that the StarFish had drifted out from over them and crashed into the ground.

The Ragnit-Fusion bomb had leveled most of the Core hive cluster and the surviving Zerg now feral without leadership were easy pickings for the UNSC Marines and airforce.

A mouth passed as the survivors of what would be known as the battle for Alpha Centauri B became a memory and half the fleet returned to the Sol and Epsilon Eridani star systems in triumph. Celebrations were held for a week across the whole of Terran space even as corporations and governments scrabbled to start planning and negotiating for the colonization of the Alpha Centauri system and others around it. After two months a dozen Colony construction ships and a fleet of civilian transports started the first colonizing efforts in Alpha Centauri.

After two years the first city was completed on Alpha Centauri B with more being built along with resorts in orbit and on areas on the planet with a desirable view people would love to wake up to in the morning.

Ten years after the final battle on Alpha Centauri B Justin and Selvaria were married with Hibiki being the maid of honor and Aliasse being the man of honor (Don't ask why). After being married they retired from public view for a few years while continuing to work with Aliasse and Ellen Reid who a year later retired from NeoCortex. Afterward Aliasse took over for her as CEO of the company and started up the CB project continuing to plan for the future conflicts.

Twenty years after the battle of Alpha Centauri B a small fleet of four long distance supercarrier class colony ships were built by NeoCortex and crewed by a select group of people who would travel far out into the depth's of the Galaxy as apart of the first long range colony project ment to a colonize a part of the galaxy named the Koprulu sector. The four ships were each ten miles long and named the Nagglfar, Argo, the Sarengo and the Reagan. Each had their own AI but the main one in charge of the fleet while the crew were in cryosleep was named Atlas.

Even with the advances in slipspace drives the colony ships would take many years to reach their destination. A part of the galaxy destined to be the crucible of conflict that will decide the fate of all who call this plane of reality home.

But it won't be the only place to decide the fate of the galaxy for a lone world called Remnant will also play an important part in the conflicts to come. And perhaps the most important.

* * *

 **Chapter End.**


	22. Chapter 22

**NOTE**

 **If you haven't read the second chapter of my side story [Tail's Of the Fractal-verse] then you'll miss out on some stuff relevant here so go read that first.**

* * *

 **Chapter 22**

 **Enter The Fractal -verse Part 1 Meetings and conflict.**

* * *

With a start Ellen opened her eyes, the sun shining through the trees high above, but something was strange. The light was not coming from a single source like the sun or another single source but from the whole sky. Blinking as she laid in the forest clearing Ellen also felt something odd about her location. Grass. Grass doesn't grow under trees in a dense forest. There should be a layer of leaves here? She thought.

Still the grass as unnatural as it was, was soft and comforting. Ellen took in a deep breath and just enjoyed the warm air and soft ground she laid upon. The wind blew through the forest making the tree branches and taller strands of grass dance. It was peaceful and relaxing yet somehow repressive. Ellen smiled as she took in the pleasant sensation of her odd environment.

But then her in her restful state she remembered. How she got here and in a startiled shock sat up. Flashes of an intense but short war played through her mind as she remembered her and her swarms new and very unexpected enemy.

"Fucking ultra smurfs!" Ellen exclaimed in a deadpan tone and a very displeased expression.

[UltraSmurfs] refure's to the Ultramarines chapter from the WarHammer 40k universe. Many people call them this because; they are bright blue, nobody likes them, they are viewed as honourable followers of rules, they are boring, if you abbreviate them to SMU then you get the start of the word Smurf. And their blue and goody goodies (well as good as you can get in warhammer 40k) who follow the rules of their primarch to a letter.

Ellen craned her head up to the forest canopy feelling a headache coming on. But then she started paying more attention to her surroundings and sensed a extremely powerful presence nearby. It even felt stronger then Azrumath that Tal'darim that she fought a long time ago who was by far the most powerful and serious threat Ellen had ever fought up to that point baring the leader of the freaking Space marine invasion fleet she had just defeated. However this new presence was far stronger then both combined by leaps and bounds and it was coming closer.

Ellen stood up realizing for the first time that she was naked. But ignoring that because it really didn't bother her she turned to the direction the powerful new person was coming from. Ellen thought about using her telepathy to read the mind of the approaching presence but thought better of it as that would be both rude and could ruin any chances she has of making friends and as the saying goes the first impression is the most important.

Ellen breathed in and out as the noise of footsteps in the grass came closer. She saw the movements of a shadowed humanoid figure move from tree to tree but their movements weren't that of someone hiding but rather of someone taking their time to arrive as if wanting to extend the coming meeting and perhaps parting.

As Ellen watched the figure continued moving closer to her through the trees becoming more visible and distinctly none human as they had a pair of rather large horns and a tail colored Cyan along with the arms and legs but upon closer inspection they were in-fact covered in a layer of tiny scales.

'Shes beautiful!' Ellen thought as the monster girl, the only fitting description Ellen had for her stopped not ten feet from her.

The All Mother glanced at the stranger head to toe recognising her as a very beautiful human who if not for the lack of long ears would easily pass as an elf. "Stranger? how you come here. Hath the gods sent you here to punish me... more? Are you really human?" The All Mother said sensing that this person was not a normal human.

Ellen had no *ucking clue what this person was saying let alone talking about so she decided to bridge the language barrier with her telepathy. Connecting with this monster girls mind and making a translation of her definitions of words, sounds and meanings was easy and something Ellen had actually done quite a few times before when she could still visit Earth a long time ago when she learned japanese and other languages and was coming in handy here.

"Do... you... understand... me?" Ellen said experimentally in the monster girls own language.

The All Mother tilted her head barely understanding the rough speaking of the common tongue of her world. "Uh? yes."

Ellen gave a relieved sigh as her invasive tinkering in the monster woman's mind had not made her mad or upset her. And proved to quickly remove any problem they would otherwise have had in understanding each other. Ellen really wasn't in the mood for playing charades.

"Hello my name is... Ellen. What's yours?" she said in a friendly tone.

The All Mother smiled and replied. "I.. don't have a name. Never.. needed one. But... you may call me by my title. All Mother."

 _'All mother ?'_ Ellen thought as she brushed the cultural difference's aside and awkwardly replied. "Ok... All Mother could you tell me where I am?"

At that the All Mother's look turned grimm and distraught. "Prison... this false world my prison. I.. started a war in sorrow and rage of my first borns death."

Ellen saw and could feel the swirling emotions silently raging inside the All mother as she took on a depressed expression looking at her feet.

Even though Ellen couldn't identify with the All Mother as a parent losing her child she could still understand the reasoning, but she needed to know more.

"Umm. If you'll tell me i'll listen to your story."

The All Mother turned her head up to her guest or rather fellow prisoner now feeling more grief for Ellen's being here then for her own sorrow. But there was one way. But maybe she would not want to do it perhaps. Maybe if I explained why this place exist's and why im here. The All Mother thought. "Will you... listen to my story."

Ellen nodded as the All Mother gave a weak smile. The two sat down on the shaded grass as the All Mother explained that her first born child (Who was basically like the new godzilla from from godzilla monster planet) was slain in battle with the chosen heroes of the gods and his head presented to her.

Ellen was looking like she was calm but on the inside she was livid. Seriously who the *uck kills someone whos basically the prince of the monster race and gives his head to their mother. That is just messed up. And is definitely a way to start a war if that's what your aiming for which just made Ellen even more angry as a stone she has picked up nearby became pulverised to sand in her hands.

The All Mother continued explaining that the war lasted a long time until the All Mother came back to her senses and ended it. But was also saddened by the many lives both monster and Human that were lost. In victory the Gods placated the monsters by imprisoning their All Mother in this picket dimension. Fast forward a few thousand years or so and here we are.

The situation felt like the Gods or their human servant's at least instigated the war just to get rid of the All Mother who was the only being who could match them in power or even unify the monsters races against them. Anyway you slice it though Ellen no had zero love for these gods or their zealot followers.

"Sorry for your lose," Ellen replied in the only why she felt comfortable with. Wanting to take the All Mothers mind off the past Ellen decided to tell her own story. She started with her life as a human on Earth which ended in her getting shot and awakening to her true nature as a Valkyrur. Then the arrival and the gaining of the Zerg as her own personal army. Then she explained a about the war and her own reasons for it. Then Ellen got to the good parts concerning the Growth of the Terran empire and it's expansion into space and the war on Alpha Centauri B. And the arrival of the uninvited guests and the series of events that led to Ellen being here.

* * *

 **[Flash Back]**

Ellen sat in her throne of chitin observing through the eyes of Overseers in orbit as the Terrans made landfall at three landing points. Many orbital drop pods large and small entered the atmosphere as she watched.

"Izsha how many of them do you think will survive their first landing operation?" Ellen asked.

The black and gray humanoid Zerg who was also sitting upon her own throne crossed her legs as her tentacle hair twitched in thought. "Given that the spot they chose was one of the gaps in the orbital defense grid their chances are very good. Otherwise they would suffer severe casualties," Izsha replied.

Ellen continued watching the Terrans make their descent through the weaker then normal anti air defense fire, noticing that one drop pod had been hit by a glancing strike from a glaive and sent flying off course by a few miles. The pod landed and was set upon by a group of Zerg that were wiped out by the lone Spartan. Seeing the development of Spartans and their power first hand, made Ellen feel a little giddy inside as the Terrans were finally becoming a real threat.

Ellen watched through the eyes of her Zerg pursuing the lone Spartan as they fought and died observing the skills of the Spartan closely. Ellen really wanted to fight one of these Spartans and gauge their strength and character but that was about to be put on hold as a message from a Brood Queen who's Behemoth had just arrived reached her.

 **"My empress a unknown enemy has attacked the capital!"** the Brood queen transmitted.

 _"What? A unknown enemy,"_ Ellen thought. **"Send me what information you have on them?"**

Ellen received the memories of the Zerg that had already battled the Unknown enemy and was shocked at what she saw. There plowing through space bringing with them promised doom to all that stand in their way was a fleet of ships numbering almost ten of thousand flying in a well thought out and offensive based formation of flying arrows with many other smaller interceptor fleet groups forming a defensive clusters around the offensive main body that made up hundreds of arrow shaped groups. The ships were all of differing shape and size many kilometers long but all of them had a gothic aesthetic to their construction and sported golden statues of winged warriors holding equally big weapons. The sides of the all the ship hulls were armed of to the teeth with rows upon of lascannons and Macro-batteries, torpedo launchers and many other weapons of the Imperium of man. All from another universe. One that Ellen really really didn't want to have to fight against.

 **"FUCKING HELL!"** Ellen exclaimed standing up in shock.

Gritting her teeth Ellen realized she had just sent a solar system wide telepathic shout.

"Shit. this is shit," Ellen said normally catching Izsha's attention.

"Something wrong?"

"Were returning to the capital. Our home solar system is under attack by the Imperium of man," Ellen answered attempting a calm voice as her mind raced thinking up strategies to counter such a overwhelming foe.

Izsha's face paled and her jaw dropped at the answer.

 **"Nakool ready your fleet were returning to the capital now to face a unexpected but very real threat."**

 **"Yes my empress,"** Nakool replied.

Within seconds the Alpha Leviathan opened a warpgate along with the rest of the Zerg fleet in the Alpha Centauri system. The trip was relatively short as the speed of Zerg FTL travel was always the same regardless of the distance between the point of origin and destination.

In another star system across the galaxy a great swath of space lit up marking the arrival of Ellen's fleet. But it wasn't alone as another fleet of ships numbering two hundred cruised a few thousand kilometers away but quickly took notice of the Zergs arrival. The fleet ship types consisted of Dauntless Class cruisers, Lunar Cruisers, Overlord Class Battlecruisers, Mars Class Battlecruisers and a few Armageddon Class Battlecruisers and a half dozen Retribution Class Battleships all baring the color's and insignia of the Adeptus mechanicus.

Slowly did the imperium fleet turn. Aiming their vast array of advanced weapons at the Zerg fleet. A army of Servitors and slaves loaded Macro-cannons and torpedoes. Lance batteries glowed a fierce crimson as they charged up aiming their burning fury at the unholy fleet of abominations their god hath sent them to purge.

"Shit" Ellen thought as she ordered her fleet to deploy their ablative shielding. The use of which she had forbid before because she knew the Terrans wouldn't have been able to break through it so it wouldn't have been fare during the battle in the Alpha Centauri system. But against the threat they were facing now it was needed.

Behemoths and Leviathans and every other bio ship of the Ellens fleet started discharging a liquid like blue creep of a special type from various slits across their bodies and between their lather armor plates. The blue substance flowed over the Zerg bioships bodies like a liquid gel covering them.

The Blue creep was a further evolved version of the armor creep Starfish use to create a armored shell. But this type can conduct psionic energy far more efficiently and form a viscous semi liquid psi-armor layer that acts as a type of organic shield layer over the normal chitin armored hull. Ellen thought this up as a Zerg counterpart to energy shields other races like the Protoss have. But Ellen never thought the first live battle and enemy it would be used against would be freaking Imperium of man forces from the Warhammer 40k universe.

All at once the IOM (Imperium Of Man) fleet fired burning space with thousands of scarlet beams and 2 story building sized projectiles along with green orbs of superheated plasma that was followed by torpedoes. After a few fleeting seconds the lance cannons beams reached Ellen's fleet making the ablative armor ripple as the bio shields absorbed the holy fire.

Seconds later the macro shells impacted with enough kinetic force to knock Behemoths and Ellen's own Alpha Leviathan off course a little by their shere velocity and mass. But most of the impact force was absorbed by the semi-liquid and psionic qualities of the ablative armor. Shortly after the Plasma bolts landed splashing against the psionically charged bio shields doing even less damage then the other two weapons. And lastly thousands of torpedos neared Ellen's fleet after a full 4 minutes after the plasma rounds and proved even more useless as they were quickly intercepted by clustered formations of Scourges and destroyed without even hitting a single target. Even so twenty Behemoths and one Leviathan was severely damaged.

Ellen and Izsha watched as the last torpedo exploded and the remaining Scourges in the interception forces returned to their respected ships.

"Hah! the Ablative shield works like a charm," Ellen stated ecstatic at the successful field test.

"Our shields may have withstood that barrage but they may not hold up in a sustained attack," Izsha cautioned.

"Understood. Now let's start this dance of death shall we my foes."

Ellen ordered a fleet wide retreat and counter attack using glaives and spine cannons at max range while also having her fleet scatter into a wall like half circle formation of units clustered into smaller fleets spread out across a few thousand miles. This would decrease the long range accuracy of the IOM fleet while maximising theirs and allowing the Zerg fleet to hit the IOM fleets center in a crossfire from the leading and rear ends of the half circle.

The IOM fleet continued it's barrage of projectile and energy weapons even as the Zerg fleet retreated. But after a few minutes started to give chase as Ellen's fleet got farther away. Ellen linked with her fleet and started identifying the disposition of the IOM fleet. Using her hive mind connection to process vast amounts of information and gudge the total combat strength and tactical skill of the new enemy. In only a short time she could see how the IOM fleet moved and predicted the relative skill of the fleet leaders as both her and their fleets continued their running battle through space.

The barrage of the Zerg fleet was slowly eating away at the IOM forces as one ship after another lost their void shields and was slowly ripped apart by concentrated fire of the psionically charged Glaives, Spines and Scourges. But Ellen's fleet was also taking damage as a Behemoth died for every two enemy ships.

They bombarded the red and black colored ships landing with precision on engines and bridge towers conveniently located on the upper portion of the hull and even though they were heavily armored they still took significant damage until being destroyed. One after the another Adeptus mechanicus ships started to list and drift uncontrollably as their means of control and propulsion were destroyed one after the other. While the loses on the Zerg side numbered 59 or so Behemoths, and even then they were mainly used as meat shields to protect Ellen's Alpha Leviathan and the other more important bioships who were the more large and inviting targets. And were the only units in Ellen's fleet that could match the larger IMO ships in fire power.

As the battle dragged on Ellen noticed through the many eyes of her fleet that all the ships of the IOM bore the colors and insignia of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Ellen didn't really have time to think about how or why a fleet of Adeptus Mechanicus from another universe had arrived at her doorstep but they were here and she needed to crush them here or they'll be a pain later.

* * *

 **Bridge of the Retribution Class Battleship the [Chrome Salvation]**

The bridge crew worked with perfect motion as Servitor's and tech priest's worked their stations while Captain Asmomech Pelis sat upon his command throne. He wore a red robe that covered his mostly machine body except for his face that was also half machine.

He absentmindedly flexed the two Mechadendrite on his back as overlooked the fleet through the main pic screens showing the battle against the foul and unholy beasts. He and his brethren of the cult mechanicus were but a scout force sent to further explore the system of the repulsive creatures and to reduce their numbers when this new fleet arrived unexpectedly. But it mattered not for all of these flesh and blood xenos filt will all be bathed in the purifying fire of the Omnissiah as that was the reason for them being in this universe. Guided and brought here by the power and knowledge of the Omnissiah itself.

"Continue firing until the abhorrent fleshlings are not but vapor in the void," Pelis declared not the least bit frustrated by the loses his fleet was taking. Just then a shadow loomed over him.

"I would not underestimate these lowly beasts Tech priest," the Astartes Sergeant Rufeal stated as he stood behind the captain in his terminator armor wearing a scowl on his scared bald face.

"These creatures are a most foul xenos race indeed if our divine lord the Omnissiah hath brought us here to this far distant reality to purge them," Pelis stated from his synthesized voice box.

The seven foot tall Ultramarine Sergeant Rufeal growled at the casual tone of the techpriest. Up until a few hours ago they had been a normal fleet of Adeptus Mechanicus and Ultramarines traveling across the galaxy to save yet another war ravaged world of the Imperium when while in transit in the Immaterium they were pulled into a unknown anomaly and encountered a being of great sphere of golden splendor (think golden Unicron) that talked and claimed to be the Adeptus mechanicus god the Omnissiah. This being claiming to be the Omnissiah said that a force that will threatened humanity across all realities was growing in power in another universe and needed to be eliminated before it became to strong.

Suffice to say most of the Ultramarines in the fleet were not convinced and immediately believed this to be yet another deception or attempted corruption by the foul powers of chaos. However the being then displayed a unbelievable level of control over the ships and technology of the fleet. The vessels of the fleet were improved as all their old subsystems some dating from the time of the Horus heresy became fully operational again with improved functionality.

After this display of power many members of the Adeptus mechanicus were instantly convinced even while the space marines were still very weary. But it mattered not as the being clamming to be the Omnissiah then pulled the fleet through another portal that landed them right in to another reality along with a few dozen other fleets that had the same encounter.

The various fleets opened vox communications and all agreed to explore the surrounding space but it did not take long for a problem to be found. Namely the fact the warp drives no longer worked as the enginseer's discovered was not able to connect to the Immaterium and therefor they could not make any warp jumps. This just made the Space marines all the more distrustful of the so called Omnissiah. But was also an unusual situation as the warp drives were all functional but simply could not connect to the warp.

Somewhere in the middle of the discussion as to what this means the unknown fleet of bio ships entered into Augur (senser) range. Suffice to say everyone believed that they had been dropped into Tyranid controlled space but the shapes and designs of the bio ships did not match any known records of the xenos race but at the same time were far too similar to ignore.

The highest ranking Ultramarine in the fleet Captain Pax ordered the fleet into full battle station's and immediately formed the fleet into a combat formation that had the purpose of wiping out the new xenos threat be it the Tyranids or another race that just so happened to look like them.

"I in no way shape or form disagree with you Pelis. However we must have caution in dealing with the unknown xenos. These xenos beasts may resemble the Tyranids but yet are very different. For one thing they do not produce the shadow in the warp as our Librarians and Navigators have reported."

The cybernetic body of Pelis hummed like a computer as his cogitator assisted mind processed the thought. "I have also heard that all the sanctioned Psykers in the fleet have also not felt the warps touch. A most interesting occurrence do you not believe. Why it is as though the immaterium itself does not exist in this reality?"

Sergeant Rufeal paused a moment to understand the implications of that. And it did not sit right with him. "If that is true then what that Being whom brought us here said is also true. And these xenos creatures that resemble the most foul Tyranids must be our targets. And if that is the case I will enjoy purging them and what ever abomination leads them."

* * *

 **Back With Ellen**

Ellen sneezed as if sensing someone talking about her. But it only distracted her for a moment before refocusing on coordinating her fleet with Nakool. She had also put Izsha on the task of analysing the various qualities of the enemy fleet. Their strengths and weaknesses which was easily discovered to be a distinct lack of close ranged weapons. And also a reliance on slow projectile weapons. (Well slow relative to the energy weapons they used.)

Izsha also noticed that they were slower then the Zerg fleet when it comes to maneuverability and acceleration which really didn't mean all that much in open space. But Ellen knew that she had another why to out maneuver the IOM fleet and end this battle in one strike.

Ellen gave a smile as she found the capital ship of the enemy fleet. **"Nakool I want you to lead one half of our fleet in acting as shields for the other half which I'll command and lead in a warp jump right down the enemies throat cutting off their leaderships head."**

 **"That is most reckless my empress. I am** **concerned** **for your safety,"** Nakool stated as Ellen's Alpha Leviathan shook from more repeated impacts from dozens of Macro cannons shells.

 **"I understand your reluctance to let me go. But we need to take out their leaders ASAP and get back to the capital planet. And I need a reliable second in command to watch my back. Once we shake up their lines I want you to warp in next and cut off any retreat they have planned while also serving as the second wave in the surprise attack."**

Nakool crossed her arms as she gave into the plan which seemed tactically reasonable for a swift victory **. "Understood my empress. I'll give you the best support I can manage."**

 **"Good now let's take this fleet out as fast as possible."** Ellen declared as she took control of half the fleet and maneuvered them behind the other half controlled by Nakool.

The impacts of weapons fire slowed and ended as the damage was now soaked up by the other half of the Zerg fleet giving the half commanded by Ellen a chance to make a micro warp right into the middle of the adeptus mechanicus fleet.

Ellen's Alpha Leviathan entered it's warp gate along with hundreds of other Behemoths and Leviathans.

A few moments later hundreds of Warp gates opened up in the middle of the Adeptus mechanicus fleet bringing with them half the Zerg fleet and without hesitation the Behemoths of their differing types and the Leviathan's all opened fire in all directions launching every glaive, shooting every spine cannon and spawning as many Scourges as possible to replace the ones bombarding the void shields and hulls of the enemy.

Void shields flashed bright green as countless organic weapons flew at them from within their own ranks creating chaos in the heart of the IMO fleet. Ships in close formations started turning and colliding with their own allied ships as chaos swept across the IOM fleet from the surprise attack that took them completely off guard.

Starfish were also deployed to form another layer of defense that allowed Ellen's forces to bunker in and tank damage as they dish it out. On by one, two by two, three by three, the shields of the Adeptus mechanicus ships flickered and dropped allowing untold numbered of organic weapons fire to fall against their hulls. The metals of the ships held up better then others but even they fell in time as psi-reinforced spines cut holed into them allowing acid from the Scourges to seep in and eat away at the internal hull making small breaches that sucked the air out along with some crew members.

The hull of the _Chrome salvation_ buckled and split as Ellen's Alpha Leviathan wrapped it's nydus worm tentacles around it's hull. The two ships were pulled together with enough force to smash most if not all of the _Chrome salvations_ starboard weapons against the ablative shield. Other Nydus tentacles then ate their way into the hull boring through dozens of decks one after the other before making their way to where the bridge was supposed to be.

Ellen was already in the nydus hub area when she got the go a head from Iszha still in the nerve center.

 **"The Nydus worm has reached the designated area empress." Izsha reported. "Because of the risk in breaching the hull the Nydus worm stopped a distance from the Bridge so you will have to fight through some hull ways to reach it."**

Ellen looked back at her boarding forces numbering few hundred Zerglings, Hydralisk and their second gen versions the Hunters and Predators along with Roaches, their Alpha versions Hunter killers and a few Phantoms as her personal guards.

 **"Oh im good"** Ellen projected ordering her forces into the Nydus worm.

Interconnecting hallway B45 of the chrome salvation was packed with Skitarii troopers all armed with their Mark 6 Arkhan Galvanic Rifles. Rust colored long barreled weapons with a drum mag that held deadly rad rounds of concentrated radiation made to poison and kill weak fleshlings. The host of red robed half machine men stood at the ready with their weapons aimed at the open maw of the Nydus worm. They had already emptied their first mags into it's flesh only inflicting minimal damage with their small arms. If they wanted to inflict any real damage they would need heavier weapons.

"Where are the Astartes" a Skitarii trooper asked emotionlessly.

"They have been sent to protect the engine room," the Skitarii officer replied in a monotonous voice.

Moments passed as growling and sloshing noise's escaped the maw of the great worm. Closer and louder they became until the inner throat of the worm contracted and undulated from within unleashing a swarm of flesh and blood monsters that erupted out of the Nydus worm like a volcano of chitin and teeth. All at once and with the precision of a machine the Skitarii troopers opened fire, their shots hitting the their intended targets with deadly accuracy. Zerglings fell by the dozens as a barrage of unnaturally coordinated shots killed the Zerglings in droves.

However being the meat shields of the Swarm they were doing their job serving as distractions as Roaches and Alpha Roaches moved up forming a wall of armor that blocked the second wave from enemy fire. The Skitarii troopers were not overwhelmed by the numbers of the creatures as they could shot and re-aim in half the time a human would need to. But once the larger creature's showed themselves the Skitarii officer knew they had not the fire power to hold the line. But it mattered not as they were but servants of higher power of the Omnissiah and started to state the credo of their god.

"There is no truth in flesh, only betrayal."

Four Skitarii were jumped by Zerglings and ripped to pieces.

"There is no strength in flesh, only weakness."

Skitarii on the right flank were impaled by countless Hydralisk spines falling like metal rage dolls.

"There is no constancy in flesh, only decay."

Skitarii in the middle ranks fired uselessly at a wall of Roaches as they closed the distance and sliced the stubborn cyborgs in various pieces and parts.

"There is no certainty in flesh but death."

Hunters and Predators climbed atop the walls and even the Nydus worm to get a better firing angle. And for a brief moment they all held still as if holding their breathes and... fired. The simultaneous coordinated attack dropped half the remaining Skitarii making a opening for the Hydralisk and remaining Zerglings to break the Skitarii defensive lines ending the battle in just a few more moments.

The hallway was silent except to fore chattering and hissing of the Zerg who continued pouring into the chamber. Ellen arrived just as Roaches normal and Alpha types sprayed their acid on the large bulkhead door separating them from the next area. The adamantium door steamed and slowly melted as the molecular acid ate through it slowly but surely.

Minutes passed as the door weakened and started to fall apart while the Zerg removed their dead placing them back into the Nydus worm to be recycled. The wrecked hallway was eventually stuffed full of Zerg at the point when a hole opened up in the bulkhead. When the hole was big enough a Hunter followed by a Zergling went through but nether survived as the explosive blasts of rockets blasted them to meaty bits as soon as they entered the room.

As she watched the Zergling and Hunter die Ellen shrugged taking in the situation. _"Tch. So they can sense Hunters through their camo abilities huh. I kind of figured with their tech level."_

Ellen then rearranged the forces she had at the hallway having a line of Alpha Roaches in front with the normal Roaches along the sides with Zerlings and Hydralisk in the middle and the Hunters and Predators in the back. Ellen had a Phantom take over for her there as the field officer while she blasted a hole through the floor deck and lead a second boarding group to the engine room.

As Ellen left through the new hole along with a tied of Zerg the Phantom looking around at the Skitarii bodies. If they had been armed with heavier weapons and not those radiation weapons the battle would have been much harder but seeing as the Zerg had evolved a complete immunity to radiation the weapons they used were all but useless. The only reason they killed so many Zerglings was because their aim was so good and firing rate as fast as possible for their weapons.

The Phantom growled as it heard a piece of the door clatter to the floor. A blast of plasma exploded at the new opening leaving the metal floor and door red hot. The Phantom clicked its tongue knowing that the next battle will be far harder.

The second line of Skitarii having had more time to prepare had also learned from the deaths of their first group of defenders. And were now added by lines of the servant cyborgs of the imperium known as Servintors. Charron Pattern battle Servitors made up the first line of defense armed with bolters, heavy bolters, Melta guns along with a few plasma rifles and a few were even armed with Power Fists or Power Swords in place of their arms with the Skitarii in the rear lines.

The forces of the Adaptus Mechanicus aimed their mighty weapons at the slowly melting bulkhead as it fell piece by piece until the hole was big enough to shoot through. But it was a Predator that landed the first hit a split second after a part of the bulkhead dropped away. Before the piece of melted adamantium hit the floor the spine zipped through the hole impaling itself in the skull of a Skitarii. The cyborg fell limp as it's still flesh and blood brain was destroyed. It's death signaled a hail of fire that enveloped both sides.

Acid streams, Plasma bolts, Bolter fire, hails of Spines ripped into the the Skitarii and Servitor lines. The precise fire of the Skitarii only became more well timed and precise as their overseer techpriest (in the bridge) updated their combat date allowing them to improve their combat efficiency. Unfortunately the Zerg also knew that trick and the Phantom monitoring the battle from the rear lines and out of direct sight coordinated the Zerg forces he had available to attack in varying battle patterns and targeting methods that improved the DPS (damage per second) delt to the metal humans.

The battle raged on for half a hour as the hallway became filled with corpses from both sides. The Skitarii had lost their Serventor meat shields and the Zerg had lost their Roache shields. And both sides were using the corpses for cover as the ranged combatant's dualed for best shot and the loser will be left another corpse to be experimented on or devoured depending on which side wins.

Just as the Phantom leading the attack was about have his forces break through the third line of defense the Skitarii rear forces jumped to the front of the battle. Armed with large arc mauls crackling with electrical energy they started slamming and swinging their weapons around like mad men destroying anything that got close to them.

Each strike sent surges of oscillating energy currents through any Zerg forcing them to convulse violently but thanks to superior zerg biology most survived only to be cut down by the weapons fire of the other Skitarii. The melee of lighting and metal disrupted the Zerg lines but did not last long however as the Phantom called in the Hunter killers from the rear lines who it had kept in reserve for such a emergency.

As the Skitarii melee fighters continued to advance the Zerg pulled their lines back to make breathing room. This only invited the Skitarii to advance faster as they pushed the enemy of their machine god back into the first part of the hallway where they were promptly buried in a wall of Hunter killers that dropped from the walls and ceiling. The Hunter killers instantly started ripping into the Skitarii melee fighters as they struggled to fight back.

With a dulled crack the arc mauls struk the bodies of the gen 2 Hunter killers resulting in a moment of silence as the psionic energy permeating their bodies repulsed the controlled lightning of the Skitarii weapons. The Hunter killers gave only a single second of peace before continuing their slaughter of the enemies of the swarm. After the maul fighters were eliminated the Zerg surged forthe again this time in full force as more Zerglings and Roach's had been spawned from the leviathan and joined the battle. One of many raging through the ship at this point thanks to Ellen blasting holes everywhere so her swarm could rampage around.

On the bridge just a few hundred meters from the Nydus worm Captain Pelis watched as the second bulkhead became covered in the blood and metal parts of his brethren of the machine cult before all of them were pulled away into the body of the large worm which had bored through his ships hull.

With a click a pic screen blinked on showing Astartes sergeant Rufeal dealing with the xenos invasion in the engine room along with the rest of his battle brothers. If the engine room fall's the ship will become little more than a well armed but half destroyed hunk of metal.

"Captain the fleet is being pushed back. Our numbers are dropping at a unfavorable rate," reported a bridge officer in a emotionless tone.

Captain Pelis felt at a loss for he did not want to stain the records of his fleet with the dishonor of needing help from the fleshlings of the Astartes fleet who were currently besieging the homeworld of these xenos in another part of the star system. But death would only dishonor his fleet more if they were unable to at least destroy the xenos even in death. And time was short as the xenos were starting to eat through the last bulkhead door between them and the bridge.

Yes that would be a better option. "I hereby order the fleet to overload their engines and self destruct." The captain ordered in a machine boosted voice that was transmitted across his fleet before opening a pic channel to Sergeant Rufeal.

 **[Minutes Before]**

In the engine room the Astartes space marines fought a tough battle against the horde of xenos bugs defiling the Imperium ship. The Skitarii and Serventor forces had long since been eliminated and now laid strewn across the caverns room along with hundreds of xenos corpses. Bolter and plasma fire traced patterns of fire all across the chamber as the Astartes fired upon the Zerg Phantoms taking pot shots at them while leaping and crawling all over the chamber while other Zerg forces flanked from the sides.

A move the battle hardened Astartes expected and as soon as the first Hydralisk poked it's heads out from the corner of a energy condenser brother Laerus Podes blasted it with a clip full of bolter rounds turning it into a pile of goo sprayed across the others of its kind behind it.

With a roaring battle cry Halbrur Thunderfist charged around the corner with both his power fists up in a boxing form. The second Hydralisk lashed out with its bladed arms only to have them both be dodged and leave the Hydralisk open. In one mighty punch the Halbrur vaporized the xenos body as the atoms of the creatures body were pulled apart by the powerful disrupting energies of the power fist.

With repetitive blows Halbrur covered his armor in crimson blood of the xenos as their gored bodies lay life less around him. He did not know how many of these damned xenos he and his brothers had kills but the it did not matter.

Laerus Podes and Atannus Invirian both blasted a group of Roaches into red stains with their heavy bolters as the other battle brothers around them covered their flanks and walls above. They continued their machine like repetitive movements of aiming, firing and reloading as the xenos forces continued their coordinated attack. But sergeant Rufeal realized that something was off. The xenos were not even attacking the important equipment filling the main engine chamber but were intently targeting the Astartes.

Sergeant Rufeal flanked by four other Astares in terminator watched the battlefield from atop a balcony of steel on the fifth floor. His instincts told him that the xenos were more interested in his Astartes then the ship. If his thoughts on the matter are correct then these xenos filth are in fact like the Tyranids and like them are attracted to strong genes and biology.

With a growl Rufeal mused. "Then these xenos filth will prove to be a formidable enemy indeed."

It was at that moment the vox line to the bridge opened.

[Sergeant Rufeal I am afraid my fleet will loose this battle in time so before that happens I will take as many of these xenos with us as we can. There for I implore you and your Astartes to report what we have learned to your Captain. A escort vessel has docked with the starboard side of my ship and will take you and your men to the main fleet]

For a moment Sergeant Rufeal thought the pros and cons of these strategic retreat. The knowledge gained of this new fleets combat abilities are worth while and if he can help it he would not want to die in space but with boots on the ground but either way he would gladly die while slaying xenos for the emperor.

Making up his mind Sergeant Refeal replied. "Understood captain Pelis. Take as many of them with you as you can. The emperor protects," Sergeant Rufeal said cutting the vox channel.

"Astartes we are leaving. We are to meet up with a escort craft on the starboard docking bay."

With a single booming order across the squad vox line the astartes all moved as one covering their lines of retreat and plunging any holes in their firing arcs as they swiftly made their way away from the engine room and down the hallways of silver and semi-rusted steel.

From her position on the ceiling of the now silent engine room Ellen sighed as the Astartes left. She had been cutting a swath of death through the ship and now regretted letting her time be eaten up by those Skitarii and Servintors in another room.

 **"Izsha were leaving after I get back. The enemy is a sour loser it seems and is going with the take as many out before I die approach."**

 **"I now. This ship is accelerating and maneuvering to ram us into a another of their ships ahead of us. At current speed we'll impact in 5 minutes,"** Izsha warned.

Ellen gave a exasperated sigh. _"Great now i'm in a escape the ship before doom cliche," she thought._

Ellen turned around retracing her pathe through the ship passing the bodies of countless Skitarii and Servitors all of various states of death. Some decapitated, others limbless and others ripped apart and yet others were half vaporised. Ellen used her antigravity ability combined with her aura ribbons to almost fly through the ship at breakneck speed.(think ODM gear from attack on titan)

Turning corners at almost mach 1 Ellen let her aura do all the work pulling her through the ship like a energy grappling hook flipped through rooms one after the other as she landed on a wall (like spiderman) before her aura ribbons shot out again down another long hallway and with a tug pulled her down to the exit on the other side. After that she landed on her feet and jumped up through ten decks she had blasted her way through when she first entered the ship.

Not a minute later she was back in the Nydus worm and sliding her way into the Alpha Leviathan. Sensing her empress was on board Izsha ordered the Alpha Leviathan to detach from the Adeptus mechanicus ship. Simultaneously all the other Zerg bioships in range and with a firing angle open up on the shieldless Chrome Salvation. All at once a nearly 360 hail of fire rocked the ship as it was slowly ripped apart by the concentrated fire and in the last death throws exploded in a spectacular flash of green and white light.

Shortly after Nakool and Ellen's fleet finished off the remaining ships but as she enjoyed the flash's of exploding ships one of the Brood queens in a Behemoth noticed a lone but very fast escort ship speeding away.

 **"My empress their is a lone enemy ship fleeing. Shall I destroy it?"**

Ellen having already reached the nerve center of her Alpha Leviathan turned her eyes to the lone ship. It was much smaller than many of the others in the Adeptus mechanicus fleet but much faster. Yet the Zerg could simple micro warp jump to intercept it. Ellen then remembered her Alpha Leviathan held some Infesters onboard.

 **"Nakool I'll handle the escaping ship. I've been wanting to test out the Infester's anyway."**

* * *

The Cobra class destroyer fleed the site of the Adeptus mechanicus fleets destruction at top speed.

Captain Dacross taped his black metal pip on the side of his command throne as he watched the xenos fleet shrink in the rear pic screen. Feeling only ever so slightly safer that his ship was leaving them behind. But one can feel never feel too safe as it leads to complacency and that leads to letting one's guard down. So the best option would be to always consider yourself in danger especially on the battlefield.

"Where are those Astartes? I want a word with them," The captain asked.

But before any officer on the bridge could answer the doors slid open ushering in ten, seven foot plus tall, Astares in full power armor. A few in Terminator armor like the Sergeant.

"Captain Dacross. I request the use of your ships vox unit. I must get in contact with captain Pax."

Captain Dacross stared up at the Astartes standing over him and took a puff of his Lho-leaf tube enjoying it for a brief second before answering. "Yes Sergeant Rufeal you may use my ship in any way you may need."

Not wasting any time the sergeant walked over to the ship to ship vox terminal and stood over the vox hailer who was sweating bullets as Rufeal gave him the vox channel codes.

Shortly afterwards a pic screen blinked on showing a massive black tree in the back round with a very tall Astartes (almost eight feet) in blue artificer power armor and surrounded by dozens of astartes in terminator armor along with a few dreadnought exosuits. Explosions echoed in the distance as tracer fire lit up the sky.

The astartes captain turned to the pic screen revealing a bald head and a cross shaped scar on his cheek.

"Sergeant Rufeal? what is the matter?" the astartes asked in a guttural tone that is a result of over two centuries of combat experience and the horrors and memories that comes with it.

Sergeant Rufeal's eye brows narrowed." The Adeptus mechanicus second fleet I was sent to monitor was wiped out by another fleet of those xenos that resemble the Tyranids. We were in route to another of the xenos planets to scout it out for invasion when they warped in. I now not from where?"

Captain Pax made a low growl as he considered the information. The loss of a fleet of over two hundred ships was significant but it was just a drop in the bucket for the main forces consisting of over nine thousand ship's currently invading what was believed to be a major colony world of the xenos the Omnissiah had brought the force's of the Imperium to this universe to purge.

"Understood. What information do you have regarding the new fleet?" Pax asked crossing his armored arms.

"I will give you the full date we have obtained in person but in summation they are capable of sort warps and seem to be able to adapt their strategies rapidly even keeping up with the Skitarii. My squad had also engaged with them in battle in the engine room of the Chrome salvation. Some were quit like the Tyranid lictors but were smaller, faster... and seemingly as intelligent as us. They were very... very good at dodging and coordinating their counter attacks in the moment of vulnerability that one of us attacked another of their kind."

The face of Captain Pax grew a worried scoul. "I see. That is worrying. Return to my fleet as fast as possible Sergeant."

Sergeant Rufeal and his men saluted their commander. "We will return in all do haste. I look forward to joining you on the ground."

With that the vox line cutout and the pic screen went black.

Meanwhile somewhere in the under belly of the Cobra class destroyer at the same time a warpgate opened mid air illuminating a dark empty chamber. It was a difficult act to pull off and required a bit of time to calculate the proper timing, spacel coordinates and trajectory of the Imperium ship so the warpgate opened in a lower deck and not in the middle of a wall or the hull or in the space outside.

The light of the warpgate illuminated a few create's of ammo and spare part's as a Zerg Phantom dropped out of the sphere of light quickly mimicking the surrounding floors of rusted metal. With a quick look around and a sniff of the air it sent a psionic ping back through the warp gate and got out of the way.

A moment later a large fat worm like Zerg as big as a small tank covered in black overlapping armor, six eyes and tentacles for a face with two digging claws on its front arms, and six hollow tubes on it's back dropped through the portal. Undulating it's many legs it moved out from the warp gate before more of its kind dropped through followed by twenty Predators and fifty Hunters and a few dozen Locusts.

The Phantom flicked its tongue through the air testing all of it's senses as the room once again became shrouded in darkness when the warp gate closed. Through the tiny scent particle's in the air it detected humans nearby in the hallway. Standing on its legs it walked over to the door controls. They seemed more primitive then the type it was trained to use but it could find work around as it deployed a array of tiny scillia tentacles from its wrist to interface with the machine. The other Zerg in the room growled and sniffed the air as they waited for the Phantom to open the door. A minute passed as the smell of humans and the sound of their footsteps faded.

Two minutes later the door slid open basking the room in the light of the hallway lights. The Phantom sent out a few Locusts to scout the area finding no one in the vicinity. The Phantom then sent more Locusts out to map the surrounding areas. Not a minute later down one hallway a single human with various metal parts replacing his own walked out of a side room carrying a box. Walking in perfect sync like a machine the retro cyborg moved down the hallway to a intersection and turned left followed by the Locust over head.

The Human machine hybrid walked around for what seemed like a few minutes until reaching what looked like a elevator. The Locust landed on the elevators ceiling and waited to reach the next floor. A while later the elevator stopped and the metal man walked out into a hallway filled with normal humans walking around in uniforms.

However some crew looked like the same red robe wearing cyborg men the other Phantom fought against in the Chrom salvation. The Phantom remembered the battle through the sheared memoires of the swarm and knew that these cyborgs would be tough opponents. The normal humans however were perfect targets for the Infesters virus which the Locusts are a vector for.

The Locust flew down to one crewman and stung him on the neck. With a cry of pain the man held his neck as the zerg virus started to mutate his DNA from the innocuous wound. Back in the lower deck the Phantom had hacked into the local decks security system that, while it had extremely advanced hardware, the security software and system defense programing was... somewhat lacking in the same category.

The Phantom had been trained to hack into AI protected systems and even those that didn't have any such defense's. But... the security systems of this ship were... just awful. It was like these humans hadn't heard of malware or hacking before. With a mental shrug the Phantom disregarded the inconsistency and reprogrammed the cameras and internal sensors in the lower decks to ignore Zerg and any non human.

After that the Phantom left the cargo room closing the door to scout the nearest human inhabited area the Locusts had found. The lower decks multi story hab block was cramped and smelled because the air filters were old and crap like a lot of things. Hundreds of crew shuffled about going into and out of the area on three different levels. Some going on duty others coming off duty, some tacking bathes and getting lunch, others just milling about protecting their turf from possible rival clans.

The Marter's clan who controlled Hab block 10 of Deck 1 had a feud going on with the Tuters clan in hab block 11. It all started many years ago when one of the Marter's sons had a fling with the daughter of the clan chief of the Tuters. Suffice to say it ended badly and the two lovers died vented out a air lock.

That was ten years and another univere's ago and the two clane's were still at each other's throats resulting in fifteen deaths over the years. And now the son of the current head of the Tuters clan was about to start another bit of fighting as he and three of his friends eyed the eldest son of the Marter's clan walking home from his duty station on the lower starboard gundeck's.

With a burst of speed Cain ran forwards knife in hand and stabbed his target in the back just as he started up a flight of stairs. The blade slipped into his flesh with ease as blood slowly spilled out of the wound.

"Argus!"

A man screamed as he kicked Cain in the chest decking him. Cains friends opened fire with their auto pistols killing four people at random and forcing dozens of others to take cover, but it bought time for Cain to get out of their and the back to his men as they ran away like cowards. Argus the son of the Mater's clan leader coughed up blood as he felt the knife in his back push against the wall. He looked up to his cousin Bill who had a grave face on as he feared for his cousin's life.

"Basterds *cough*"

"Don't talk Argus you need to save your strength," Bill said as he slowly picked Argus up and carried him up the stairs to his family's apartment. As the area quieted down and people got back business as usual a pair of Locust's watched from the ceiling and through them the Phantom who flicked it's tongue sensing a opportunity.

A few minutes later Matthew the Marter's clan head and his wife Sara were at their eldest son's bed side. The knife had been removed and the bleeding stopped but it had been poisoned. There was nothing they could do but watch as their eldest died slowly. Suddenly the door slammed open as a pair of brunette haired girls, twins in dirty dresses ran in and stopped behind their father and mother.

"Argus is he?!" the two girls almost shouted as their father shushed at them.

"Shush. He's in pain girls," Their father Matthew said in a quite tone.

The twins remained silent as their mother continued holding their older brothers hand.

Argus groaned in pain as the twin's kneeled at their brothers bedside.

"Damn. we'll get those Tuter basterds," the eldest twin yelled.

"Who did it i'll kill them." the younger asked.

Matthew just stared at his two beloved daughters both no older than 15 and yet they had lived through the deaths of one brother a uncle, two cousins and three of their own friends who had saved them when a bomb was rolld at them. The girls pale skinned like most voidborn were forced to grow up in the dangerous life onboard a Imperium warship.

Serving the God emperor and his Imperium even unto death was supposed to be the greatest honor in life. But Matthew just felt dead inside as his second son like the first lay dying in front of him. He didn't care if he would be branded a traitor. He didn't care if his soul would be forever damned. If he could save his son's life he would do anything.

"Human?" The rough somewhat feminine voice called out in almost a whisperer.

Matthew spun around putting his guard up to the possible threat as Sara defensively stood in front of her sons bed with the twins. They all looked around for the source of the voice but saw nothing.

"If you want to save your sons life will you do what I tell you?" the voice asked.

"Who are you? Show yourself?" Matthew stated not trusting this voice.

"What? don't trust me," the voice said.

"I don't trust what I can't see. If you have something to say say it to my face cowered who hides in the shadows," Matthew declared as he pulled a high caliber pistol out from his pants.

There was silence for a moment as the cloaked Phantom looked the humans over gauging them and their worth to the swarm. "Very well then. I'll show my face, but do please stay calm."

The family of four not counting the unconscious Argus stood in awe and fear as a seven foot tall lizard person covered in black and white skin materialized in front of them. The twins both fearfully hide behind their mother as the father quickly shook his head removing the look of shock he briefly had.

"Your a xenos then? how did you get on board," Matthew said giving the Phantom a discerning glare.

"I'll make this simple. The leaders of your vessel are my... peoples enemies. They attacked our capital world unprovoked. But my empress is a magnanimous leader. She understands that not all the people of the Imperium are as... narrow minded as it's leaders. So I offer you this one choice. Help us take this vessel. And we will help you and any that are with you to find a safe world to live out your lives on."

Matthew glanced at his wife who gave him telling look before returning his eyes to the xenos. "And if I refuse?"

Once those words left his mouth the xenos look changed to a serious expression. The Im going to kill you kind that Matthew easily recognised from his years of fighting other clans in the belly of this ship. The thought of leaving the vessel that he and everyone he knew was born on frightened him more then the xenos standing head and shoulders over him. It could, would be a new life for his family and clan but. Few if any rebellious crew survived the security guards as they were always more heavily armed then any low born crew. But the possibility of a new life on a planet was a tempting offer even if coming from a xenos.

"I'll have to talk with the other leaders of my clan and the leaders of other allied clans. And even if I do help can you even really you cure my son."

The Phantom gave a low growl. "Time is short. You have two hours. But i'll give you something to think about by curing you son of his poisoning," the Phantom said as it took a step towards Argus's bed. Sara was reluctant to move but did so with the twins moving with her. Remaining at their mother's back as the xenos creature kneeled over their older brother.

The Phantom extended a pair of tentacles from its lower back. The same kind that Queens used to cure wounds and other ailments and injuries with. Phantoms were given the same ability to increase their survivability in battle by being able to heal their fellow Zerg.

But in this case it was being used to make a deal that could possibly result in the capture of a enemy ship and its technology. The Phantoms being the most elite Zerg troops were given training drills to allow them a measure of diplomacy with possible allies or enemies that for whatever reason turn traitor on their own kind if given a good enough reason. The ability to understand such strategic possibilities were drilled into the Phantoms so if they even came across such a scenario they could exploit it to the advantage of the swarm.

The Marter family watched as the xenos slipped it's tentacles into the skin of their son and brother. A few minutes passed as they grew under his skin and exuded a green substance into the wound on his back. Argus growled in pain but after the procedure he seemed to be at least a little bit better looking and had a stronger pulse.

"He'll live. The poison was weak," the Phantom explained as he continued to monitor the mans vital signs with it's highly evolved senses and the tentacle's that were wrapped around the man's organs. A silent minute passed before the Phantom removed it's transfusion tentacle's and cloaked once more. With that the unknown xenos disappeared from sight but Matthew knew it was still there somewhere watching from the shadows.

"Didn't even get its name," he asked the air.

"Can we really trust that xenos?" Sara asked as she kneeled over her son who's breathing became normal and his skin became less pale. Well less pale then a poisoned void born would normally look.

"Will he live?" Matthew asked.

Sara lovingly stroked her son's face with her prosthetic arm letting its advanced systems scan his body for any of the poison that was until a few moments ago killing him. It detected that all of the poison had been eliminated or made inert and Argus was slowly recovering but still wreak.

"Yes," she said as Lou and lin's eyes light up.

"We have little choice now. I'm indebted to it."

Sara turned to her husband. "I'll contact my sister. You should talk with the head of our other ally."

Matthew hummed in thought stroking his chin. "We need to be smart about this. Don't tell anyone that Argus is cured. The Tuter clan will only try again. Lou Lin." The twins stood up straighter as their names were called. "Stay with your brother while were out ok."

"Yes father," the two girls replied as their parents locked the door before they left.

The zerg Phantom left the disheveled hab block the humans lived in and made it's way through the ship continuing to hack the security systems on each deck one by one so as to completely remove the possibility of any Zerg presence being uncovered. The elite Zerg breed took it's time with the computers of the ship learning their functionality little by little as they all seemed a odd cross between archaic and advanced but all were hackable. Other than those few that used punch cards. Really!? punch cards on a spaceship?

The Phantom had been through hundreds of simulations in the nexus. The simulated reality created in the Capital of the swarm where all the most elite (self aware) Zerg receive their training. But none of that could prepare it for the hodge-podge of advanced and primitive tech that this ship's systems were. Still it just made the work all the easier to complete.

 **Some time passed.**

 **Upper decks.**

A door slid open quickly drawing a crew mans attention. He kept his lasgun pointed at the open door way a moment before lowering it. He choked his head wondering if the thing malfunctioned. With a weary eye the guard walked to the door looking side to side watching for any threat. He was so weary because he and the other guard behind him both had the honor to protect the ship's navigator who like all the other navigators through the fleet had been in a state of bewilderment as they no longer could feel the influence of the warp or any trace of it.

Instead of freaking out or becoming violent the navis actually became placid and calm as if a great weight had been lifted from them. It was odd and calming at first but was also terrifying as some of the navigators became rather concerned for their continued worth to the fleet seeing as they no longer could even make a warp jump into the immaterium let alone navigate it.

This was the current concern of Diniel as he sat in his private room drinking a glass of Gleece. A rare alcoholic drink distilled from the fruits of the Glest tree and is extremely popular on the moons of Paragon where these trees originated. Gleece comes in various degrees of quality, with the best brands typically reserved for the members of the different industrial clans that govern Paragon. But during the last restoking of the ships food supplies the captain managed to get his hands on a small amount of Gleece which he shared with Diniel.

The Phantom slipped it's claws out of the back of the humans soldiers skulls quickly grabbing them, silently and slowly lowering the corpses to the floor. The only thing really of note on the ship was the minor psionic presence of the ships navigator. The swarm had learned of them during the boarding operations on the Adeptus mechanicus ships in the battle earlier and had collected their essence for study at a later date.

Still the Phantom was borde for the time being and wanted to kill time by playing the alien monster like in those Terran monster movies. During which the said monster typically kills someone important first before going after the others. Plus this would be a good way to lure the Astartes out from where even they are. Although the Phantom wasn't dumb and knew it had little chance even in a one on one fight with the super soldiers. Mainly because of the heavy armor the Astartes wore and their overpowered weapons.

But being a smart little Zerg the Phantom used it's brain to come up with a plan. It would require perfect timing and proper knowledge of the ships systems which was the second reason the Phantom was in the Navigators quarters.

"Whos there?" Diniel said seeing the door to his room open.

But upon closer inspection no one was there. Diniel shrugged taking another drink from his crystal cup of Gleece as the door closed with no one entering. He choked it up to a malfunction and sighed. Then a irritating metal on metal scraping noise shocked him out of his relaxed seat and to his feet. He looked around seeing nothing but empty space in his room. But he had a uneasy feeling that made him take a few steps to the middle of the room. Diniel looked left and right taking yet another sip of his drink this time with a worried look. Then as he turned around his chair flew at him knocking him down.

Diniel groaned in pain from the impact kicking the chair away as he pulled his plasma pistol waving it about from one corner of the room to another but finding no target. With a strained breath he stood up but then felt something hard and slightly curved puncture his throat.

"Guh!"

Blood spurted through the air as he held his necks carotid artery in confusion. Feeling the slike liquid escape his body. The last thing he saw was a reptiallion like clawed foot appear in front of him as he lost consciousness and died.

After tasting the essence of the astropath and killing a few dozen officers here and there on his way the Phantom returned to the lower decks where the human Matthew was convening with the leaders of the other clans that he's allied with.

* * *

*Smack* Fist hitting a table.

"I don't care if the thing resurrected Sanguinius. I won't trust a damn xenos!" yelled the leader of the Ardes clan. One of many lower ranked clans responsible for the cleaning of the ships hallways and officers hab blocks.

Behind him stood his sons both with minor deformities like their father but otherwise handsome men.

To the Ardes clan leaders left was Matthew and his wife at the head of the table and Saras sister who married into the other ally clan the Siles clan and her husband Rokk a well bearded man whos clan was in charge of maintaining the cooling and sub systems in the ships engine room.

As with many ships of the Imperium of man the crew live, fight fall in love have families and die on the ships they crew. Duties and work stations on many ships are often handled by a single clan. Which has its faults and political troubles such as the feud between the Marter and Tuter clans.

"I don't trust this xenos any more then you do Samson but." Rokk said in a calm voice pausing as he took a sip of alcohol. "If we can give our families a new opportunity it may be worth considering."

"Traitor!" Samson yelled as he stood up pulling a large pistol and aiming it at Rokks head.

Rokk didn't blink an eye as he looked down the barrel of a gun and just spoke his next words in a calm voice.

"I'm only trying to be the voice of reason here." Rokk said swarling his cup of brown liquid. "And besides wasn't that LITTLE trade deal you had with the Eldar a traitors act too?."

Samson winced lowering his gun and sitting back down while wondering how in the warp Rokk found out about that. Then again there are rumors saying that his wife was the real power behind his clans recent rise in favor with the captain and bridge officers which had granted them more then a few favors in return.

"So what do you propose then?" Samson said looking to Matthew who had brought the whole thing up concerning the three of their clans becoming traitors and leaving the ship. Something many of them had mixed feelings about. Most of the younger ones wanted to leave to new opportunities while the older people didn't want to leave what had been their home all their lives. But to others that was the problem.

Matthew took in a deep breath. "I know everyone has their own priorities but we all can agree that there is no future if we remain on this ship." Matthew took in a deeper breath as the next words he utters could result in a bullet to the brain if any officers hear him. "And remain in the employ of the Imperium."

The room remind dead silent as he continued but the looks on many in the room were wavering between loyalty to the Imperium or to the possibility of a better future for their clans.

"The... xenos had promised that his... people, would find a habitable planet for us if we helped him take this vessel."

Rokk and his wife looked unphased as they whispered together but Samson and his sons were wearing unpleased scowls as they talked but at least they hadn't pulled their guns and started shooting so that was something at least.

Then as they continued their debate the Phantom declocked at the opposite side of the table from Matthew. Everyone jerked their heads to the new member of the table as it sat down cross legged and just looked around at the other attendees like everything was normal.

"Something on my face?" the Phantom asked.

Matthew and the others could not but notice flecks of blood on the xenos face.

"Have you been busy?" Rokk's wife Lena asked trying to alleviate some of the tension in the room.

"I killed the one known as the astropath or navigator as you call them along with a few high ranking officers. Some officers of the ships guards."

The nonchalant attitude of what the xenos said made Samson pale and lean back into his chair while Rokk and his wifes eyes went wide in astonishment at the speed of the xenos work. And Matthew and his wife just sighed finally knowing what the xenos had been doing.

Lena then asked a question. "How did you move through the ship without being found. Surely you must have been discovered by the ships internal senser's?"

All eyes turned to the Phantom who just tilted it's head. "I hacked the ships security systems so I would not be recognised as a nonhuman. They are... unusual and difficult to break into at first. But I quickly adapted and then they became easy to manipulate."

Lena knew then that the plan it proposed now had a real chance of working. No beyond that she knew it would work even without their help and if that happened her and her family would be killed with the rest of the crew. At least this way they had a chance to live.

Lena taped on her husband's shoulder. "I think we will take the offer seeing that this xenos has already proven that he can tip things in our favor," Rokk said knowing his wife had made her choice on which side they were on.

Matthew and Sara both nodded while Samson just growled.

"So you say but how do we know your not just lying," Samson said continuing to be stubborn.

The Phantom looked him in the eyes. "I will kill the Astartes on this ship."

The declaration sent shivers down every ones spines not just at the thought of the Imperiums best soldiers being defeated by this lone xenos but the fact it said such so casually.

"Haha. You. Kill Astartes?!" Samson laughed out loud disbelievingly.

"I know how they fight. I know how they think. Though it be a short time my swarm has fought them and now understand them. And I have a small army on board this ship. I brought them when I arrived. But I will not need the majority of them to deal with the Astartes. I have another plane for them."

Matthew, Rokk his wife and Samson all looked at each other before giving their final thoughts on the matter. And it was decided that they would enact the xenos plan if he was able to kill the Astartes.

* * *

Sometime later later Sergeant Rufeal and his squad of ten astartes walked the halls of the ship fully armed and armored. Then again Space marines rarely take their armor off anyway. They had been reports of crew killing other crew in the mid decks and the local guard teams were in a panic from their officers being killed supposedly by the same rebellious elements. But his experience told sergeant Rufeal that it was really those xenos who were responsible. But one thing he really wanted to knew is how they got on board without any alarms going off.

"Clear sir." A astartes reported as he came out of a room filled with plenty of blood but no bodies.

The deck also recked of the smell of decaying flesh. The smell was so strong it permeated the whole deck and somehow even messed with the auger scanes a little.

Laerus growled as he aimed his double drum mag bolter down the hall stained with more blood here and there and some torn cloth's. "It looked like some chaos beasts ran through here what with the smell."

"Stow the comments. This may be a ambush so stay sharp. The sergeant snapped.

The Astartes continued through the ships weapons raised at any possible anble of attack as they moved through more hallways turning left then right then left again passing through a cafeteria and again finding lots of blood and torn cloths scattered all over the place but still no crew. All of them aimed their weapons in all directions keeping a fierce vigil out for any enemies in the open space.

The deck was quite. Almost to quiet. Rufeal didn't like this. They've been finding traces of fighting all over the place but still know signs of what's responsible. The ten Astartes exited the cafeteria and rounded another corner moving down a hall a little ways and then it happened.

*DRIP*

*DRIP*

*DRIP*

The dripping above drew the Astartes attention up as the red liquid splashed on their armor in drips and then became a heavy shower pelting their armor in a rain of blood. Sergeant Rufeal and his men looked up at the ceiling narrowing their eyes in part anger and contempt as they saw a horrifying sight. A mass of human bodies, bones and flesh spread across the high ceiling revealing skulls, ribs and bones of all kinds protruding bodys parts from a bloated and sickly purple pink skin with hundreds of eyes that tracked the astartes movements.

"By the emperor what is-"

The Astertes words were cut short as a barrage of Hydralisk spines pelted the space marines from in front and behind. The bone spears dug into their armor a few inches but got no further. Reacting like lightning made flesh the Astartes aimed and fired. sergeant Rufeal ordered those with plasma weapons to destroy the mass of flesh above them while everyone else fired at the Hydralisk and now Zerglings surrounding them. Super heated gas and bolter rounds showered the enemies of the imperium as the Zerg Phantom watched from another chamber.

 _"These Astartes are difficult opponents...but"_ The Phantom thought.

Hydralisk and Zerglings exploded one after the other from the bolters armor penetrating explosive rounds but as the Astartes focused on the enemies in font and behind the walls flanking the Astartes burst open. Roaches bared their fangs and claws but the Astartes anticipated this and like a flash of lightning brought out their Power weapons. With graceful arcs and forceful punches the Roaches were pulped and sliced open. Not even their rapid regeneration was not enough.

The battle lasted only another few short minutes as the numbers of Zerg decreased in fours and fives. The centuries of battle experience allowing the Astartes the efficiency of a machine as they fired, reloaded, hacked and slashed through the xenos defiling a ship of the emperor.

At last the battle was over. The xenos were dead and the mass if flesh on the ceiling was a pile of ash. The Astartes stood over the broken and pulped bodies of their enemies but sergeant Rufeal still had a bad feeling in the pit of his trans-human stomach. That feeling soon became a reality as his armors warning alarms blared.

[WARNING SEAL BREACH. DETECTED]

[WARNING BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION DETECTED]

[DETECTING XENOS INFECTION]

The warning of their power armors machine spirits cam too late for the Astartes as the red rain still on their suits had enough time to eat through the seals of their armor and get in side.

With a heavy heart and a raging spirit the Astartes started feeling their flesh warp and change.

"Damn" sergeant Rufeal cursed as he realised the real threat was in fact the blood rain the mass of flesh showered them with and the attack by the other xenos was just to buy time for the red rain to eat its way through their armors seals.

The Astartes had superior bodies granted to them by the the geneseeds of the Primarchs. They had the best armor that could withstand the mighty weapons of their enemies. They had weapons of the finest make and design to kill the enemies if the Imperium. They had centuries of hard and brutal training and battle experience that forged them into the finest soldiers.

However there is no such thing as invincible. Every shield has a weak point. Every weapon can malfunction or be countered. And every soldier no matter their experience can be outsmarted given the right opponent and strategy.

After a half hour of undergoing the infestation process the mutated Astartes stood like loyley and now mindless husks covered in chitin, claws and spikes poking out from their armor.

"This was a successful test. My empress will be pleased," the Phantom said as it walked passed the row of mutated Astartes. Regretting the only downside to low level weaponized infestation which was the corruption and degradation of the unique essence of the infested.

 **Chapter End.**

* * *

 **Infester breed.**

 **Infestation specialist. Anti-infantry. Anti-structure**

 **Ranged abilities: Viral infestation Glavis.**

 **Close ranged abilities:** **Neural Parasite and control** **filament tendrils.**

 **Defensive abilities: Burrow: Sensor jamming micro spore cloud. Can be made transparent.**

 **Special ability: Can be produce Creep Blob units that is highly resistant to kinetic attacks and** **regenerate** **rapidly thanks to its network of tiny Creep cores. Blobs can infest targets through armor first smothering them in its own flesh first.**


	23. Chapter 23

NOTE

I know some of you reading my story think the appearance of the Imperium Of Man forces in the last chapter and this one might be too early but, for how I have the story structured and planned it's more of an introduction to that universe and the threat forces from it pose. After this though their won't be anymore forces from the warhammer 40k universe appearing for a long time. But the story will eventually react that universe at a much later date.

Also I know the Warhammer 40k universe is kind of over the top and OP but I hardly think it's the be all to end all of the power scale. If anyone has seen the anime Gurren lagann you know where i'm going with that statement. It's a great anime and the end series episodes power scaling blows most if not all other fiction universes away. Including Warhammer 40k.

And as a explanation as to how Ellens swarm can fight on equal terms and beat the IOM forces it's simple. Ellen's Zerg forces have Psionic enhanced armor and weapons and psionic powers that warp the laws of physics a bit decreasing damage and increasing it. And that tipped the battle in Ellen's swarms favor. And on a side note I got the Imperium of man involved this early because they'll become even more powerful later on. Imagine if they actually learn how to create and properly maintain tech from humanities golden age also called the dark age of technology or tech from other universes Like star trek or star wars.

Now you know where i'm going with this... Ha ha ha!.

Also also I rewrote the end of the last chapter. Some of you said it seemed rushed so I fixed it a bit and made it more realistic. Thanks for the critic. Please continue to give me more in the future :)

* * *

 **Chapter 23**

 **Enter the Fractal-verse Part 2**

 **Flash back continued.**

* * *

Ellen's fleet arrayed in arrow formations numbering dozens of Behemoths each formation surrounding the few Leviathans remaining including Ellen's Alpha Leviathan. They traversed the void heading to the world of their swarms capital. The Alpha Leviathan followed over head of the rest of the fleet of which 68% remained from the last battle.

 **Alpha Leviathan Nerv center.**

Ellen *sighed* sitting in her usual position on the soft creep legs crossed lost in thought of her next move. Which was to retake her swarms current home world. However being the accomplished planner Ellen had her swarm scattered all over the local star cluster. In total there were 4000 star systems inhabited by her swarm. Most with just a few hive clusters ether in asteroids or on planets most of which were life-less balls of rock and therefore uninhabitable by most other life forms with the exception the Zerg who can basically live anywhere but depending on the local resources and strategic importance of the starsystems or the location in said system the size of the hive clusters and population varied. But a few systems rich resources like the capital world were made into a hive worlds.

The Super hive cluster on Alpha centauri B was partially conversion of that world into a Hive world. In total there are ten said Hive worlds in Ellen's swarm all with a multiple layers of defense on the surface, in orbit and in the rest of the system. However even such defenses were defeated by the combined force of nearly ten thousand IOM ships lead by a Ultramarine company and their battlebarge. Though they suffered around 20% casualties defeating the combined Zerg fleets in the system they took their time in landing and attacking hives on the capital world. Slowly marching across the planet in a slow invasion that consolidated their forces and kept any small scale counter attacks at bay.

Ellen bounced her left leg up and down thinking of a way to get to her throne. She had Abastein integrate it into a massive system that when combined with her own Valkyrur powers used the hive mind as a kind of super weapon. But said tree was currently surrounded by a army numbering a few million and consisted of one company of Astartes, A few million IOM imperial guard troops and tens of thousands of armored battalions and air support not to mention a few Titan pairs scattered around.

So far the Zerg forces have been able to hold their ground thanks to their concentric rings of heavy defenses that were also psi-armor reinforced and included a network of Nydus and normal tunnels connecting to hundreds of underground hives and their defenses. The rapid spawning of new forces and the reinforcements from other systems arriving through Maws of the swarm also helped stem the tide of enemy attacks but without fleet support the Prime Hive cluster and the throne will fall in a matter of days.

"And that's the report my Empress." A brood queen said on the wall screen explaining the situation.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Ellen mumbled.

"My empress?"

"*Heavy sigh* Im fine. But hows the Tamashī no ki and Is Abastien ok."

"Yes my empress. They are fine. Thanks to many Brood queens working together the Tamashī no ki was able to be activated... but only at 10%. It was still enough to bolster our defenses and stave off destruction from the orbital attacks and the enemies Titans." the Brood queen answered.

In a half dome chamber covered in crystals and a smooth reflective floor a hundred Brood queens sat surrounding a large crystal pillar. The brood queens fed the pillar their psionic power and relayed it through the structure up to the great tree above forming a series of orbs along it's branches. The orbs shot out blasting large chunk's of the landscape away along with several Titans, thousands of imperial guardsmen and hundreds of armored battalions.

"Good. I'm authorising the use of Infesters and Corrupters. Get to mass producing them pronto!"

"Shouldn't we call our fleet forces in from the rest of the swarm territory. With our unified fleets we could easily crush this enemy?"

Ellen looked the brood queen in the eyes. "I know but I have something else planned. This is the perfect opportunity to test the Tamashī no ki."

The Brood queen bowed. "Understood my empress. Shall I begin targeting officers in the enemy ranks and using the Infesters and Corrupters."

"Please do. Also make sure you use the Bane-Locust to soften up their forces so the Phantom's have a easier time slipping through. And make sure to destroy any of their sensor systems your forces come across."

"Understood my empress," The brood queen replied. The screen darkening to black.

Ellen *sighed* laying on her back arms and legs outstretched. She momentarily thought of swinging her arms and legs like to make a snow angel just for the stupid fun of it to relieve some of her built up stress but then she remembered the creep would just return to it's normal position so it was a useless gesture.

"*SIGH* I may as well see how far along Izsha had gotten on that prototype?" Ellen said standing up.

Quickly making her way through the innards of her ship she quickly reached Izsha's room which also happened to hold the culmination of her work over the past few hundred years.

A armored organic door slid to one side letting Ellen enter. Standing before her was a giant body of chitin and tentacles standing on six folded legs covered in black metal plating and red crystals belonging to the Tal'darim. All taken from the salvaged parts of Wrath walkers and other tech from the _Wrath of the stars_. There were clusters of eyes all over to give 360 degree vision and two large black spikes on the back placed side by side both being clusters of charged pulse blasters. Shield emitters were also present on the body and legs. Heavier Zerg spine cannons were placed on the sides of the head and on the rear of the back in forward and rear firing angles. This combined with the Pulse blasters provided a 360 degree firing arc.

"How's it going?" Ellen asked approaching Iszha tinkering on the back of it with her hands and tentacles.

Izsha put something into a slot and slapped the hatch closed followed by a thick armor plate closing over it. "It's working and ready for combat," she replied jumping down. The creep thickened cushing her fall.

"Will it do any good against a Imperium Titan?" Ellen asked looking up at the six legged mass of black metal and red crystals.

Stopping in front of Ellen Izsha crossed her arms. "Outnumbered it would fall quickly but we both know the modus operandi of the Imperiums Titans. They always work in pairs and rarely if ever in large groups."

"Heh! I hope," Ellen stated looking back up at the bio-mech.

* * *

 **Astartes forward operating base.**

 **200 kilometers from the great tree.**

On the surface of the unnamed planet Captain Pax watched as the Xenos forces gathered behind the ten mile wide hill of their fellows corpses left behind from the past few hours of fighting. The blitz attack and invasion of the planet has come along smoothly even if casualties among the mortals of the Imperial Guard and Adeptus Mechanicus have been high. Even losing a few Titans to the swarms of those tiny explosive bugs no bigger than a mortals for arm. But the strategies of the enemy were easily countered by placing a few companies of guards men around the mobile war machines. The guards las-weapons were quit underpowered but perfect for shooting down the swarmed of tiny explosive bugs given their speed of fire and numbers.

"Captain?" an Astartes stated approaching the captain from behind. "The xenos have begun another counter attack on the right flank."

Pax humed as he thought. His long experience as a warrior for the Imperium told him that the enemy xenos were getting desperate. "Have all the fastest air and ground units harass the attacking forces flanks while the battalions Baneblades and the other armored forces push into the enemies middle while artillery provides a defensive curtain."

Far off in the distance Swarms of Zerg in the hundreds of thousands consisting of Hydralisk, Zerglings Roach's, Hunter killers, Ravagers and Impalers, surged forth like a living tidal wave spilling out from the hundreds of kilometers wide ring of concentric domes each a mile or more wide. The inner defensive forces and structures of the hive world despite the bombardments have survived all thanks to the psi-armor level 4 reinforcing and ablative armor coating granted to them by the new bio-structure developed by Abastein called the Psi-core. It was a structure based on the Overlord but without a mind of its own and being a structure. Like the Overlord It served as a node for the psi-communication of the swarms collective hive mind but much more specialized.

This also resulted in a side effect that amplified the psionic abilities of nearby Zerg units and zerg structures including raising the power level of psi-armor and ablative creep armor.

Ellen and Abastein concluded that this was because the psi-core lacked a mind of it's own. The new Psi-core could also focus the collective psionic powers of the whole swarm or as Ellen speculated the collective soul of her swarm or at least a small part of it. Much like the shadow in the warp of the Tyranids of the warhammer 40k universe.

Wanting to see what happens if the Psi-core was scaled up into a networked system and with the hopes of creating a super weapon Ellen and Abastein scaled up the Psi-cores by a massive factor into a massive three mile high tree the empress named the Tamashī no ki (in english the Tree of souls). Unfortunately the system of the tree of souls had never been activated before and in smaller scale tests it was was extremely stressful on the psi-core. Placing multiply Psi-cores in close proximity lessened the stress and it was was discovered that if a Queen or Brood queen took direct control of the psionic energy flow it greatly helped manage the flow of power and it's distribution to nearby units. However Queens were not as good at controlling the flow of energy and even Brood queens the had their limits.

The full scale 5 mile high Tamashī no ki was created for the expressed purpose of being Ellen's throne. Built for her and her alone as she was the only one powerful enough to control the collective power of the whole swarm by herself. At least in theory as it had never been tested or used at full power.

As the moving tide of Zerg stampeded across the field of corpse's marching in defused formations the IOM main army main force consisting of millions of imperium guards, Skitarii, Thousands of Leman Russ, Rhino APCs, Repulsor, Baneblade, Land raiders, and Vindicator's marched on rolling over the burned and broken corpses of uncountable numbers of Zerg as their air-born counter parts blitzed the attacking Zergs forces. All at once hundreds of Land Speeder Typhoon types, Jetbikes, Storm ravens and Valkyrie's assaulted the Zerg flanks. The sky and land were set ablaze with laser fire as glaives flew in controlled trajectories to their targets. The landscape exploded in fields of blossoming red and green flowers of metal, flesh and acid as artillery on both sides bombarded each-other from many miles away. The two sides clashed with the ferocity of a nuclear bomb, a earthquake and an astroid impact combind.

The sounds of battle were defaning as human guardsmen fired at the moving wall of claws and fangs. Las-rifles, Auto rifles and Las-cannon's carried by two man fireteams blasted swathes of death through waves of Zerglings. Plasma weapons burned the chitin off any they hit marking those using such weapons as targets by Zerg Predator snipers. Spines flew like waves of rain piercing the through the guards Carapace Armour filling the men with so many projectiles they look liked porcupines. Ravager glaives exploded mid air over clusters of guards men showering them in acid rain wounding, maiming and killed many and those that survive decrease in combat effectiveness weakening multiple points in the defenses.

Commissars rallied their troops with cursing and threats in a foreign tongue while blasting the skulls of and decenters or cowerdes. Formations of Wyverns and Mutalisk counter attacked the IOM air forces filling the sky with as much chaos as the battle on the ground. Basilisk artillery behind the front lines sent salvos of high explosive shells flying to the front lines more then ten kilometers away. In the next moment two of them exploded as vollyes of Ravager glaives impacted with precision. Colossus Siege Tanks in the rear of the advanching armored battalions in the IOM forces center fired sending their heavy shells to the battle front as the ground beneath them erupted bringing forth a dozen Impalers. They moved swiftly destroying half the Colossus tanks before the surrounding Chimera APCs and Leman russ tanks fired on them.

In the air Wyverns sweeped great numbers of Valkyries out of the air in pitched dogfights While Mutalisk gave support to ground forces blasting Leman russ tanks into scrap metal. Each side maneuvered in the smoke and fire filled sky trying to out maneuver the other in a constantly changing battlefield spread across hundreds of miles. Soon after sky burned with more fire as Marauder Bomber's blasted Zerg ground forces with their twin nose mounted las-cannons. After the first strafing run they swooped over the disrupted enemy forces unloading their bomb bays. Like fireflies in a oven the bombes illuminated the Zerg forces in burning promethium fire. Impalers in the rear guard unborrowed quickly sighting in on the new targets.

The IOM bombers were quickly assaulted in a shower of spines destroying engines fuel tanks and killing crew. As the bombers fell out of the sky a Corporal and his squad in a Chimera APC was hit by a stray Ravager glaive knocking the Chimera onto its side. They quickly filled out of the wrecked vehicle scanning the area for targets while they patched the wounded up.

"These xenos remind me of the Tyranids on Ichar 15" said a sergeant as he hefted his arm mounted assault cannon (gatling gun)

"You were in that war on Ichar 15?"

"Yeah. The genestealer cult was a pain to purge but the support from the Astartes made things much easier."

"In coming left flank!" a guards men shouted firing his hotshot las-rifle at a alpha Zergling.

The squad showered the in coming wave of Zerglings in assault cannon and Lasrifle fire quickly turning them into crushed and burned corpses.

"Hah! these things remind me of Hormagaunts" the sergeant said as the ground shook. "Shit underworm. Take cover!"

The squad booked it out of there just before a Nydus worm erupted out of the ground followed by ten more all across the battle lines. Having seen what a threat they posed every guards man and Skitarii focused their fire on the new threats.

In the inner core of the Zerg capital hive clusters the commanding Brood queen of the capitals defenses saw the enemies of her swarm take the bait. With a single thought she gave the order.

As the gathered forces of the Imperium of man blasted the nydus worms to pieces hundreds of glowing spheres formed all over the battlefield growing larger and larger with each passing second. The guardsmen and Skitarii forces fired on the orbs but it had no effect. Then a massive shadow dropped out of each sphere taking the form of Hivelisks. All at once one hundred Hivelisks entered the battlefield creating shockwaves and massive dust storms that blanketed the whole battlefield from their landing.

With a calamitous roar the Hivelisks spine cannons and glaive launchers began firing in all directions and with great precision through the dust clouds blasting the locations of Bane blades tanks and other heavy enemy weapons locations to pieces. Each shot guided by a unseen eye floating high over the battlefield.

Miles up in the sky Formations of Overseers watched the ground far below them serving as spotters for the Hivelisk. But their peaceful job was a short lived one as enemy craft by the dozens dived in from orbit. Stormhawk gun ships piloted by astartes of the ultramarines took aim at the floating eye monsters and fired blasting them out of the air with their Typhoon Missile Launchers. Quickly following behind came the Storm eagle Assault Gunships and Caestus Assault Ram transports. All of them dived in through a heavy screen of glaive and spine fire weaving and bobbing through the sky as they descended at terminal velocity.

Below them their was not a single square inch of peaceful space for hundreds kilometers. Ever available amount of space was devoted to the horror of battle. But that was the specialty of astartes. Captain Pax readied his Power sword as his personnel squad geared up for the attack on the enemies stronghold.

"We're over the enemy Titans sir," the pilot stated.

"Good."

With a single glance around the cabin Pax knew that his men were ready. The door to the transport opened and the astartes jumped out in pairs. They fell dozens of meters before landing on the back of a Hivelisk. The other air reinforcements bombarded the Hivelisks destroying spine cannons. Some Storm eagles and storm hawks were cut out of the air by the wiping motions of kaiser tipped tentacles. The deaths of their allies warned the other astartes away from close combat with the mobile fortresses. Pax and his men marched over the back of the Hivlisk making their way to the closest Hive tower. From its base poured dozens of Hydralisks and many Zerglings.

"For the emperor!" Pax yelled as he and his men charged forth.

As the wave of the xenos raced at him Pax pulled out back his power sword and with a single stroke bisected two Zerglings as Hydralisk spines racked across his armor. The twenty astartes hacked and slashed, bashed and brutalized their way through the defenders with the ferocity of a starving Hormagaunt eating a guardsman leaving behind broken and bisected bodies in their wake.

"Breach explosive!"

Following his Captain's command a space marine planted a Demolition Charge on the chitin door and set the timer. The squad backed off and waited.

*Booom!*

As the smoke cleared another wave of defenders charged out of the destroyed opening and were happily greeted by the astartes weapons fire. After a full three minutes of continues fire Paxes squad raced inside quickly making their way through the maze of winding tunnels and organic bulkhead doors. Within the inner gate chamber of the Hivlisk dozens of Hunter killers waited in ambush on the roof of the inner chamber. Two of the doors exploded on opposite ends of the room and through the smoke marched the astartes weapons up ready to battle.

As soon as the astartes were all in the room the Hunter killers fell upon them cleaving bolters, plasma pistols and melta cannons in half in just the opening few seconds. The astartes reacted in the blink of an eye punching and kicking the xenos in their joints weak points, breaking legs and shattering chitin. The hunter killers responded with a counter attack of their own as they became charged with psionic energy and with an equal amount of vigor slashed and hacked at the astartes rending armor and severing limbs and splitting skulls.

Captain Pax swung his power sword with the speed of a cyclone clashing with the hunter killers psi-blades. Both their their psi-armor and his sword seamend equally matched as the blades created showering orange sparks with every strike. High strike, mid thrust, parry followed by a spinning kick. The Hunter killer was sent flying backwards into another of its kind knocking it off another astartes it had pinned against the wall.

Pax and the freed ally both charged at the two Hunter killers keeping them occupied for a few brief seconds. Those second were vital as across the room another astartes slammed a Hunter killer into the wall using his bulk and repeatedly hammered it with his power fist dozens of times until it was stunned for a brief second. The astartes jumped on the xenos back and with a single motion snapped it's neck. With one last strike the hunter killers armor and body vaporized by his power fist.

He then ran to his Captains aide punching one Hunter killer so hard it flew up to the ceiling. The astartes then roundhouse kicked the other Hunter killer in the side giving a opening for Pax to decapitat the xenos filth. The rest of the Hunter killers were finished off within a few minute's. The captain and his squad then got on to their real mission but as the last hunter killer fell the warpgate started to close.

"To the gate! quickly" Pax ordered as he and his men broke into a full speed sprint in all do haste jumping into its glowing form. Instantly they were transported into the depths of the prime hive cluster on the planet.

"Cloaks!" Pax ordered.

Each squad member hit a object on their chest making their bodies waver and disappear from sight as a horde of zerg guarding the Maw of the swarm gate room attacked and were quickly surprised by the appearance and disappearance of the intruders. The local queen in charge of the security of the chamber ordered the room be sealed and searched top to bottom. The four doors closed as the Zerg scattered around the room beginning their search but as they did the astartes remained where they stood.

"This is a interesting technology captain. Where did you get it?" asked a battle brother.

Pax turned away to the nearest door. "The emperor gave it to me."

At those words the other astartes froze with even more questions needing to be answered. But their loyalty to their captain was none the worse by such a proclamation.

"Please explain captain?"

Captain Pax continued walking until he reached the first door but instead of hitting the solid surface he passed through it and the rest of the squad followed. Pax waited on the other side. "It was during the time we were first swallowed by the warp anomaly and the omnissiah revealed himself to us. I heard more than the rest of you." Pax explained as they continued through the living xenos tunnels. "He told me that the god emperor of the Imperium and the omnissiah of the Adeptus Mechanicus are one and the same being. And that the greatest enemy humanity will ever have will arise in this dimension and it's our purpose here to kill her."

One battle brother glanced at his captain. "Her? Who is it that we must kill?"

"Her name is Ellen. A witch who controls these xenos with her foul magic. And though she is not here now I have been shown the future. She will be here soon. But she is powerful. As powerful as a Primarch if not more so."

The thought of facing someone as powerful as Roboute Guilliman him self made some of the astartes question if they even can do such a thing.

* * *

 **Ellen's flagship Alpha Leviathan.**

 **10 light seconds from IOM main fleet in orbit.**

Ellen tapped her armored foot on the creep as she watched the battle on the surface. The space marines of the ultramarines chapter had landed on the surface of the planet just after the Hivelisk were deployed. And reinforced the imperial guardsmen's forces. At that point the corrupters and Infesters were deployed from the hivlisk and they started wreaking havoc all across the battlefield along with swarms of Bane-locust and Phantom's killing commissar's and other high ranking officers. Even so the combat was swinging to and fro as each side shifted their forces around and changed tactics on the fly.

Ellen was impressed with how her brood queens were handling the battle as she continued tapping her foot.

It slowly started grading on Izsha's nerves. "If your that nervous then go down there yourself you know you want to. Just go wild!"

Ellen *sighed*. "I don't want to back them into a corner and have them them use all that fire power they have orbiting the planet." Ellen said pointing to the bio-screen showing the cloud of nearly ten thousand ships orbiting the planet. " They already burned half the planet and also it's stupid for a leader to put themselves in unnecessary danger. Besides im banking on the Tamashī no ki to end this war in one move."

Izsha hummed in contemplation. "I'll at least send my toy out there to get live combat date before you do so."

"That's fine," Ellen stated. "I'll get to the throne room. Abastein and the others are waiting." Ellen stood up to leave when Izsha grabbed her hand. "What?"

Izsha pulled Ellen down to the ground in front of her placing her hands of Ellen's armored shoulders. "Before you go let me relieve some of that pent up stress."

Ellen was at a loss for words. "Eh! ah what why now all of a sudden?"

"I just don't want you to go off half cocked with a stone stiff body and mind that might slow you down. Now take that Praetorian off for a bit." Izsha explained with a amused smile.

Begrudgingly Ellen did as her chief adviser said and took off the upper half or her Praetorian symbiote sliding it half way off and exposing her upper body. Gathering her long hair she covered her chest and tried to relax. Izshas hands moved over her empresses exposed shoulders moving in rhythm to a unheard tempo flexing and rubbing with her fingers that despite being covered in armored carapace were smooth and soft.

"Eeeh... ahhh! When did you learn to do this?" Ellen asked enjoying the sensations.

Izsha grinned, happy she got a response like that from Ellen. "You pick up a few things after learning about biology and nervous system. Your body is still very much human... for the most part. And you build up stress if you don't let out some steam once and a while."

Ellen moned in enjoyment letting her head flop forwards as Izsha stimulated her pressure points. "Ahh! ugh mmmm. If I knew you were this good I would have had you do this whenever I had a bath."

Izsha chuckled at the notion. "Sorry I may be a servant of the swarm but i'm not that easy little miss empress."

"Who are you calling little! I'm older than you. Eh!-" Izsha poked a few sensitive pressure point's that sent waves of delight through Ellen's body. "Ahh! that was... underhanded!."

The spontaneous massage lasted for a few minutes before ending.

"Ok that's all you can go now," Izsha said stopping.

"Eh? over already huh!. Oh we'll back to the war then."

Ellen put her Praetorian armor back on and left. Izsha took a few moments to think about Ellen's chances of winning this fight. The psi-cores were a proven system but never before on the scale of the full Tamashī no ki. Izsha worried if Ellen even being a Valkyrur could handle the stress of controling the whole swarms collective Psionic power at once.

"I hope everything turns out fine?" Izsha asked her selfe.

She then got to warping her toy to the battlefield on the planet.

* * *

 **Somewhere on the battlefield.**

A Warlord class titan raised it's massive foot stomping upon a water like mass of Zerg swarming over the war-machines feet and legs. Some climbing up to the knees clawing and biting as their psi-reinforced bodies took small chunks off the massive warmachine's armor bit by bit. The towering metal giant ignored the little ones instead focusing on the formation of Ultralisks stampeding towards it and it's Warhound partner.

The warhound fired its Inferno Gun's at the swarms of lesser xenos bathing them in a torrent of fire and flame. At first the fire washed over the psi-armor of the second gen zerg but even they had their limits. As the swarming Zerg passed through the fires of hell their bodies slowly heated up much slower than they would have been but the end result was the same and the warhound titan left behind nothing but a field of charred bodies as barrages of spines from the Ultralisks impacted the titans void shield as waves of Ravager artillery fire impacted the shields in a continuous stream. The barrage was so intense the titans were stuck for a full minute until their shields were finally dropped.

Just as the artillery fire stopped the shields fell and the Ultralisk spines dug into the armor of the two Titans armor but didn't penetrate far enough to deal enough damage to drop them.

Unphased the two Titans marched on ward.

The Warlord spun up it's twin arm-mounted Belicosa Pattern Volcano Cannons taking aim at the approaching heavy Xenos and opened fire sending a beam of burning orange and red fire streaking through the Zerg lines. The heat and intensity of the twin volcano cannons overwhelmed the psi-armor exploding four of the Ultralisks instantly as the overpressure from the sudden jump in atmospheric temperature caused a heat wave explosion that sent the other six rolling end over end.

The footsteps of the warlord titan shook the land as the Ultralisks recovered raising to their feet once more but as they did the Warlords Ardex-Defensor Mauler Bolt Cannon turrets ripped chunks out of their flesh as a prodigious rate that left the once great beasts of the Zerg swarm as nothing more but stains of blood on the creep as it was burned away by the warhound.

The two Titans continued on their way when a warp gate opened behind them.

From the orb of light came a object equally to their stature. It extended it's six legs landing with little a sound as it's mouth glowed with a intense red light from within. The warhound Titan was taken completely off guard as the Cyber Ultralisk fired vermillion beam as intense as a volcano cannons. The warhounds void shield took the hit flashing a bright green as the beam struk it making the barely recovered shield fail from the psionic energy laced beam. Such energy reduced the effectiveness of the warhounds void shields and drained them in one hit.

Slowly the warhound turned to face the new enemy but as soon as it had a pair of horns pierced through its lower torso as the Cyber Ultralisk hovered forwards at a speed one would never expect from such a large thing.

The Warlord turned to face the new threat also but as it did the Cyber Ultralisk and the Warhound both collided passed behind it. While the psi-reinforced horns of the cyber Ultralisk we're dug into the warhound, twin tentacles slowly moved towards it's cockpit and with a sudden jerk jammed into the frame killing the pilots and some crew. With the first pray dead the Cyber Ultralisk extended it's legs dragging groves and dust clouds into the ground as it stopped it's forward momentum.

The cyber Ultralisk pushed the dead weight of the warhound off and came to a hult as it charged up another shot of it's main weapons which were cluster's of charged pulse blasters both in its mouth and on its back. The three weapon clusters each had three of the formerly Tal'darim weapons modified by Izsha to fire in beams and pulsed shots.

Having turned around the Warlord fired its volcano cannons only to miss as the Cyber-Ultralisk jumped out of the way flying over the titan utilizing the antigrav abilities of Zerg Drones that were integrated into its body to easily move around the battlefield leaving something as large as it a far less easy target. With a crash the Cyber-Ultralisk landed and spun around with a hop of its legs. It's three main cannons fired into the Warlords back at a single point. Lights of green and vermilion clashed and flared but the warlords shields being far more powerful and having more time to recover than the meger warhounds took the attack and countered with it's rear-mounted Ardex-Defensor Twin-linked Lascannon turrets.

Twin beams of blazing energy clashed against the Plasma shields of the Cyber Ultralisk. The shields heald barely but quickly recycled and were up to full power before the warlords weapons were able to fire again. The Cyber ultralisk activated its antigrav field again and rushed the Warlord in mid turn slamming into its right leg. At point blank range the Warlords leg was blasted with all three main weapons of the Cyder-ultralisk. Glowing red hot adamantium armor became heated as it quickly melted opening a hole that ran through the leg. A volcano cannon fired blasting half the Cyber-ultralisk head off and forcing it to back off through the explosion of super heated dirt.

With a pained growl the cyber-ultralisk dashed away licking its wounds which had destroyed one of it's main weapons. The warlord took aim at the xenos titan and fired once again only to again miss as the beast using its anti-grave abilities kicked off the ground making it slid across the landscape as the volcano beams turned the ground it once stood upon into molten magma. Once again getting behind the Warlord the Cyber-ultralisk rammed into it this time aiming right onto its lower back and main power core. The well aimed shot blasted through the warlords main power core creating a explosion that consumed both the Titan and the Cyber-ultralisk.

After the dust settled the damaged remains of both of them were observed by Izsha from her location in the alpha Leviathan and watched with a mournful sigh as the one and only Cyber-ultralisk was destroyed in a massive explosion that was almost like a nuke going off.

"Hmm the prototype cyber-ultralisk was a good fighter even without any crew. But it needs more work. It will be fun designing the later versions. But getting my hands on more Protoss tech will be a problem."

* * *

In the core of the great tree towering over the battlefield Ellen stepped out from a warp gate and was quickly greeted by Abastein two Brood queens and a host of Phantoms and Hunter killers to act as her guards.

"Welcome back empress," One brood queen said with a bow.

"It's good to be back. What's the situation in here?"

"Condition grave. Possibility of enemies breaching prime hiver clusters defenses high. Recomined use of Tu mashī nu ki to eliminate invaders."

Ellen ignored Abasteins butchering of the japanese name and walked passed the guards. "Thats why im here. How's the other brood queens doing?"

Both the Brood queens flinched at the question. "Not well. We've had to change out many of our sisters in rotations to keep enough of them fit to lead our forces in the front lines and to rest."

"I see," Ellen replied as they entered a the personnel chambers.

The flower garden was different now. Filled with blue crystal's feet long and in clusters that led to a single large crystal pillar filling the center of the dome with Ellen's house having been moved to one side of the dome. Ellen, Abastein and the bodyguards had made their way to the pillar when they started sensing the deaths of their fellow brood sisters.

"Hurry to the throne room!" Ellen yelled as they double timed up the crystal stairs.

After climbing at full sprint for a few minutes they reached the upper dome chamber which was twice as big as Ellen's chamber with a smooth floor of blue crystal that marred with spilled blood and the sounds of battle as the corpses of many brood queens were scattered all over. Many of their bodies crushed and dismembered by the power blades and fists of the astartes standing in the chambers center.

Two Brood queens fired psi-blasts at the group only for the orbs to be dodged and the attack countered with bolter and plasma fire. The brood queens evaded in a flash of movement dashing side to side as they closed the distance and fired four more attacks at near point blank range of the encircled astartes. The psi-blast's landed unleashing explosions that turned some astartes into flying shrapnel of metal and blood.

The remaining astartes close by were injured but still able to fight and quickly their battle brothers covered them with more heavy bolter and plasma cannon fire while the rest recovered.

Another group of brood queens fired barrage's of spines impacting the ceramite and adamantium armor of the astartes some piercing opening,s in the armors joints others into eye holes of the astartes helmets felling two of the super soldiers but their well aimed bolter fire blasted a brood queens legs off leaving her a open target for a finishing shot from a plasma cannon that turned her into a charred silhouette.

With ferocious vigor the space marines returned fire again and again sweeping their heavy fire across the chamber while evading the continues psionic and spine attacks. Bolter rounds exploded by the dozens as the Brood queens evaded dancing across the battlefield while counter attacking with a grace and speed that few Eldar could even match even using their wings and tail's to block what they could and evade what they could not. One Brood queen picked up the severed bone wing of a sister and throw it piercing into the rear knee joint of a astartes whom had their back turned but the injury didn't even have a effect on the man s he turned and counter attacked.

"Damn who the hell are these guys and how did they get into the inner sanctum," one brood queen yelled as a full clip of Inferno Bolt round struck her midsection immolating her in a fire fulled by a oxy-phosphorous gel. She screamed leaping out of the way of more bolter fire as she bared with the pain. Her psi-armor reducing the damage for the most part while her regeneration abilities repaired the damage even as her mind focused on the battle but in that instant she felt a intensely murderous intention along with everyone else. The kind that would make a lesser person piss themselves as they looked into their killers eyes. The feeling washed over them, filling their hearts with terror. A instant later a blue blur shaped like a sword shot passed her impaling one of the astartes in the weak gut portion of their armor.

 **"What the FUCK is going on here!"** Ellen shouted into the minds of everyone present.

In that moment everyone stopped fighting and turned to the new arrivals. Ellen bore eyes of hate at the astartes while flanked by two other brood queens, Phantoms and second gen Hunter killers all of them taken battle stances with Abastein remaining behind by the entrance way.

"Disturbing. Unsure how enemies infiltrated inner sanctum. Must improve internal sensor systems and security," Abastein said talking to himself.

One of the astartes smirked under his helmet. "So that's the target. The captain should be inpostion by now."

Ellen's eye twitched hearing that stray thought as she sensed something appear out of nowhere behind her.

* * *

Meanwhile in the battlefield surrounding the great tree, zerg forces started to falter as the leadership and psi-armor defenses failed. Without their psionic reinforcement's from the great tree the majority of the hive clusters domes became weaker falling to the heavy weapons of the Imperium titans and artillery. On the southern battlefield thousands of Infesters and their creep blobs covered the land absorbing the bodies of many thousands of guardsmen. Then in a flash of light and fire one tenth of the force was vaporised by a Warlord titans weapons fire. A second Reaver class Titan fired it's Gatling Blaster shattering the Zerg formations on the left. Then it fired off five of it's Apocalypse Missile's blasting apart the right flanks of the Zergs formations.

Four Ultralisk unburrowed from behind the two titans and tackled them by the legs temporally immobilizing them. Seeing the opening a swarm of bane locusts descended from the smoke filled sky. The cloud of green insects swarmed the titans by passing their shields because they were small and slow, getting into every nook and cranny in their joints even a few vents. As the Titans started to brake free the Bane-locusts detonated showering the titans weakest points with acid that slowly ate through them. The titans movements slowed as their joints became weaker. The reaver titan batted away a Ultralisk and blasted through it's torso while the other Ultralisk were destroyed as well leaving the Hive cluster domes open to attack again.

Both Titans took aim at the targets over twenty kilometers away and fired. Beams, missiles and screaming shells of quake cannons impacted the chitin domes shattering, burning and vaporising them easily like glass. Without the reinforcement of psionic energy the hive cluster domes guarding the perimeter of the Tamashī no ki started to fall one after the other. Only the Hive clusters with still experimental psi-cores were able to hold their own and remained standing against the imperium's forces.

* * *

 **Back with Ellen.**

Silently Captain Pax raised his power sword and decloaked. The phase cloaks made the astartes invisible and invulnerable but also made it impossible for them to interact with the rest of the world so in order to attack their targets they needed to deactivate them. Still this gave them the edge they needed to easily kill these xenos while they were vulnerable.

The captain slashed at his target but groaned in annoyance as his power sword stopped mid swing.

"It's not very courteous to attack a person from behind," Ellen said as her aura hand grasped the Captain sword. She had just barely noticed the astartes killing intent when he appeared out of nowhere behind her. It's a good thing she kept her aura sense field up just in case something like this happened.

Creaking and groaning noises of strained metal echoed through the room as Ellen squeezed her aura tighter around the blade but before she did anything else more astartes uncloaked and attacked. The Phantoms quickly used the Hunter killers as shields while they maneuvered around the heavily armored opponents rending their armor to pieces with their psi-claws. The two brood queens accompanying Ellen evaded a power fist directed their way, grabbing the astartes by the arms and throwing him onto his back. The two focused their energy into a point blank double psi-blast that exploded the astartes power armor creating a shower of crystal shrapnel as his body was smashed into the floor.

The battle started again as Ellen quickly jumped backwards producing phantom swords floating around her. In a flash the blue blades flew at the astartes like lances piercing some and slashing others not fast enough. Seeing the power of the one his emperor ordered him to kill Pax drew his double barreled storm bolter. Ellen and the Captain both stared at each other for a fleeting second as Abastein continued watching from the entrance way.

In a instant Ellen sent a flurry of blades sailing through the air at Pax. He dodged unleashing a torrent of armor penetrating Kraken rounds at her. Simultaneously she flipped through the air somersaulting away as the Kraken rounds exploded the ground where she once stood. Both combatant's danced around each other as they fought.

Pax lunged forward thrusting his blade. Ellen spun on her heel's using her praetorian's wings to deflect the blade and pulled her fist back as Pax leveled his bolter at her head and fired. Ellen leaped sideways feeling the wind on her face as the shell flew passed her head. She formed a aura hex barrier as Pax blasted at her again. The aura defense easily took the exploding hits but as Ellen charged up a psi-blast orb another Astartes attacked from her flank. Sensing the rear attack Ellen formed more hex barriers blocking the plasma blasts as they dissipated in superheated puffs of smoke. She formed more phantom blades and sent them sailing in all directions while ordering all her forces in the room to duck.

A ring of 30 blades expanded flying 360 degrees as the astartes attempted to evaded or block. But each of the blades ever so slightly shifted their trajectory impaling over half the remaining astartes through the torso. With a smile Ellen grasped the air as if holding a sword raising it high into the air. The phantoms blades followed her movement's bisecting the impaled astartes from chest up. Pax made a angered expressen as he grasp a pendent of a golden cross in a silver ring around his neck.

"I don't suppose you'ed consider surrendering?" Ellen said as her surviving guard forces surrounded the remaining astartes.

The last of the space marines stood back to back weapons raised as they held their ground without fear. "I think not witch."

Ellen felt angered that this guy called her a witch but the feeling quickly disappeared as the astartes faded from view protected by their phase cloaks. Now with some time to breath and think Pax and his surviving nine men reloaded and attend the wounded while making a new plan of attack.

"Captain what are our orders?" a battle brother Pax had fought with for the last fifty standard years asked.

"We must finish our mission for the emperor. We need only wait for the most opportune moment."

Ellen called more Hunter killers and Phantoms into the inner sanctum arranging them into a tight circle around her and the throne as she took the opportunity to activate the Tamashī no ki while she still had the chance. The empress of the swarm took her true throne for the first time activating the tree of souls for the first time.

Outside the Imperium forces lead by the main force of Ultramarines and Titans fought their way ever closer to the Tamashī no ki.

A pair of Warlord titans aimed their apocalyptic arsenal at the great tree and fired blasting chunks off the heavily armored structure. The attacks continued chipping away threatening to fell the great tree.

Back inside Ellen focused activating the Maw of the swarm gate deep below connected to another star system where a spherical bio-space station contained many thousands of Maws of the swarm. The structure acted as the central hub connecting the Tamashī no ki with Ellens entire swarm spread across many star systems and worlds. Ellen gathered the collective power of her swarm through the warp gates gathering it into the Tamashī no ki.

Outside the great tree glowed as bright tracer lines ran up from the roots, up the trunk spreading throughout the branches.

The Titans attacks stopped damaging the tree and it slowly regenerated the damage. Tanks aircraft and Titans fired at the tree of souls as its glow intensified as the psi- armor level continued to increase and soon the attacks of the Imperium forces did nothing to the Tamashī no ki.

 _"Enough playing around."_ Ellen thought beginning to feel the strain of controlling her swarms collective psionic power. "Time to end this," she stated focusing the Tamashī no ki's power and her aura into it's branch's.

The great trees upper branch's glowed even more brilliantly forming many orbs of focused psionic aura that glowed brightly illuminated the land and even made the dark clouds above shine with reflected blue light. Then all at once the branch's shot beams upwards piercing through and clearing the sky of clouds. The beams pierced the sky splitting up, multiplying until they numbered in the thousands. In the void of space the fleet of the Imperium of man orbited content in its power but that was about to change drastically.

All at once the scattering beams of the Tamashī no ki's energy and Ellen's aura clashed against the the fleets void shields. Space shined like a thousand thousand solar flare's bursting over the planet shaking the ships to their adamantium frames. Each beam pulled back from the ships a moment changing shape into giant hands nearly as big as the ships themselves. From their bridges and stations the captains and crew of the fleet watched in muted horror as the hands grasped onto their ships by passing the void shield that only protected from high energy ranged attacks not slow melee attacks. The fleet shook as they were grasped by the hands with armor, decks and hangers braking and collapsing as the pressure applied was beyond what they were made to endure killing many crew by venting into space suffocation.

Ellen gasp taking in a pained breath as she pushed herself to her breaking point. The amount of psionic energy she was controlling and the length's to which she was pushing her aura was straining her body to the point where she was bleeding from her nose.

The aura hands grasping the fleet became taunt pulling the fleet to the planet. Captains and officers blared orders across the fleet pushing their engines to their limits to escape their fates. The fleets engines started to glow red and then white hot as the strain began to cause damage and slowly but surely they started exploding one after the other while others just failed.

Either way the tentacle arms pulled them down to the planet.

The first ships to enter the atmosphere turned a glowing red as the adamantium was super heated by the speed of their descent and the friction with the atmosphere. Like a shower of shooting stars the ships if the imperium fell from the sky too fast for their gravity control systems to compansat. The impacts were nothing short of cataclysmic excavating craters miles wide with each impact and sending plums of dirt and dabri reaching into the upper atmosphere.

"Empress is reaching limits. Suggest letting Nakool's fleets aide," Abastein said.

With a strained expression Ellen replied. "Ga, ah, ah, do... it,"

Nakool and her fleet watched from the orbit of the planets moon as the thousands strong fleet was slowly pulled down to the planet a few thousand at a time. Each time the ships would go beyond the point of no return the tentacle arms would shift to another target placing twice the amount of strain on those ships and making them fall even faster creating a domino effect as the fewer ships their are the faster they are pulled down.

"Empress?" The elder brood queen mumbled as she watched the incredible display of power.

In that moment she received a telepathic message from Abastein.

 **"Nakool. Aide the empress in destroying the fleet. She is reaching her limit. We can not let them escape."**

 **"Gladly," the brood queen replied** replied **. "To all of my forces gathered here. Attack!"**

Following Nakool's order a fleet formation of one thousand Leviathans, three thousand Behemoths, destroyer Behemoths and sixteen thousand Scourges, Mutalisk, Guardians and Wyverns gathered from other systems warped right over the Imperium fleet.

All at once the Leviathans and Behemoths attacked firing focused barrages of spines and glaives continuously at the restrained fleets as swarms of Scourges dive bombed them at full speed colliding with thousands of ships. The attack rapidly depleted their void shields but knowing it wouldn't be enough Nakool sent in attack waves of Mutalisk, Guardians and Wyverns to attack any open spot of the enemy ships.

Ellen pulled from below and Nakool forces attacked from above.

The combined strain finally broke the back of the imperiums fleet as five thousand ships started losing altitude all at once causing the domino effect. Groups of ships one after the other impacted the planets surface creating a planetary scale nuclear winter as dust covered the whole world contrasted with the orange and red glows of more impacts occurring below the layer of smoke and ash. After a mere ten minutes of fighting the imperiums fleet was nothing more then broken metal corpses littering the planet's surface.

Ellen breathing a sigh of relief as the strain of her effort had ended. But then it happened in the blink of an eye.

Ellen felt pain from her chest. She gave a pained *gasp* looking down at the blade impaling her chest. She gave a pained expression looking up at the materializing Captain Pax standing over her.

Pax wrenched the blade up splitting Ellen's torso and head in half while digging a groove through the crystal pillar behind her. In a instant Ellen's body guards turned on Pax as his remaining squad also decloaked beginning a bloody battle of attrition in which Abastein retreated to safety.

 **"Abastein what happened!?"** Nakool shouted in a panicked tone the evolution masters mind having sensed Ellen's death.

 **"Empress killed. Sudden death. surprise attack,"** The slug zerg answered as he reached a entrance tunnel retreating again.

Darkness deeper than the ocean. Darkness deeper then the void. Darkness deeper than a empty heart. In the blackness a blue colored Ellen laid on the black floor while a another person bound and chained to a cross with blood red skin and hair that draped over most of her face watched. "Really!... This is how im going to die." She spoke in contemptuous voice that sounded like Ellen's while staring daggers at her other half.

With a swift swing Pax beheaded the last of the zerg. He took a moment to look around satisfied with the completion of their mission. "Good we're done here. Let us return to the surface and leave this place."

Slumped on her thrown Ellen's bloody divided upper body staired lifelessly at the ceiling.

Back in the dark world the red woman raised her head a little showing some of her lower face. "Come on my other half. Use me. Use the other half you rejected. The power you feared. Or else... all your plans. All your dreams. Will all end here. Do it... Do it... Do it...!"

The Blue Ellen opened her eyes looking up at her bound other half. "Fine. But for your information I don't fear your power. I just don't like the way I become when I do." she replied in a weak voice.

The astartes walked away from completing their mission but then Pax's instincts flared. In a single motion he turned around witnessing red tracer lines flow from the crystal pillar to the throne and into Ellen who's eyes and hair started glowing a bloody crimson red.

"What sorcery is this?!" One astartes shouted as he witnessed the transformation.

A fraction of a second later a ribbon pierced into his chest. Feeling his very soul be extracted and burned to fuel Ellen's power he screamed in a aganising yell that shook the resolve of the others as they watched one of their own turn to a shriveled up husk and hollow armor.

Ellen stood up, slumping over forwards a little as her upper torso reformed into one whole again and a explosion of red swirling aura ribbons blasted the Praetorian bio-armor off her body reforming into a red semi armored skin suit with large wickedly sharp claws on her hands and three wide triangular spikes on the shoulders, knees, elbows and knuckles with a thicker segmented armor along the outer arms, legs and back that ended in three large oval plates covering the head top and sides but exposed the glowing scarlet eye's.

Ellen raised her head revealing a mask with razor sharp teeth covering her lower face like fanged armor. The solid red aura teeth curved upwards into a unnerving grin aimed at the astartes. "Ah ha ha ha! ah ha ha ha. That!... hurt!." Ellen exclaimed expanding the aura over her hands into large savage claws. "lets me return the favor!"

In a flash she crouched down digging her clawed hands into the ground leaping forwards in a flash of speed that the astartes could barely follow. With one stroke a space marine was impaled quickly followed by a second clawed hand. His armor providing little resistance as Ellen's monomolecular red aura claws rent his body apart like tissue paper.

The two halves of his body hit the floor with a echoing clang as the other astartes raised their weapons and fired.

laughing with glee Ellen leaped around in a bler of motion avoiding the bolter and plasma fire. She turned her head looked at her next victim shooting out three red ribbons from her lower back like tails. They stuck into the ground pulling her out of the trajectories of the plasma bolts that just sailed past her. Landing a distance away she leaped at the nearest astartes spinning through the air as he made a punching move at her. Ellen shot out the tails again getting a foothold and twisting her body mid air avoiding the power fist by mere inches. She grinned ear to ear feeling the energy field of the power weapon send a static effect over her body.

Landing like a animal ready to leap at it's prey again the berserking empress expanded the aura on her feet into large claws like her hands and jumped backwards flowing into a roundhouse kick that took a astartes upper half off. "Woops. Another one bit the dust!" she quipped with murderess glee.

The astartes continued firing and firing but no matter how fast they aimed or tried to predict the movements of the Monster they fell short as she leaped all over the room at near supersonic speeds filling the chamber with the echoes of her laughter. One by one the astartes fell to her unorthodox wild fighting style. In fact Captain Pax was sure the maddened witch had completely abandoned any defense in favor of absolute attack power yet still the battle hardened astartes felt like she was holding back. The thought made the Captain grit his teeth as he tried his best to predict the leaps and jumps of the monster in human form.

With a maddened smile Ellen landed in front of one astartes who leveled his Plasma pistol at her and fired unleashing a ball of green molten energy. Ellen sensing this coming with her aure twisted out of the way going horizontal as the ball of superheated death pass over her. She dug a clawed hand into the floor and spun rapidly extending her aura claws slashed the astartes in to three halves.

Captain Pax and the few remaining astartes shot at the insane witch monster from multiple angles but all for naught as a red hexagon dome formed around Ellen blocking the 360 degree attack. In the barrier Ellen stood up letting her hair flow over her chest as she became, disinterested in the incompetent ultramarines. She thought a moment staring blankly up into space and laughed as she remembered a funny joke. "Ha ha ha uh aaaa. That was a good one."

A astartes swung his power sword with all his might at the psionic aura barrier but the blade only bouncing off with a chip. "Damn what is this thing? Captain should we retreat."

Suddenly there was a call from a newcomer to the scene. "Empress?!" Nakool shouted at the top of her lungs drawing Ellen's attention.

"Huh?" Ellen let out in a half annoyed half threatening tone tilting her head sideways lazely.

In a flash of red a ribbon zipped up beside Nakool and a moment later her left arm fell off. "Gah! Ah. My empress why?"

Ellen dropped her barrier and raised her head up placing a closed fist on a flat open palm. "Oh! Nakool. Your one of my brood queens right!... Sorry about that hehe," She said rubbing the back of her head.

Captain Pax and the other ultramarines took this opportunity to act seeing as this might be their last chance to kill Ellen. A power fist flew at Ellen but stopped mid swing as her aura clawed hand caught it and squeezed cutting the oversized metal hand into so many pieces along with the astartes hand and with a flick the man's head was changed into confetti.

The last three astartes ran up to Ellen placing their bolter's against her for a point blank attack but as they did Ellens clawed fingers extended bending and slicing in a 360 degree rapid slicing tornado blur that turned the astartes into piles of metal bits and bloody flesh.

Pax sweated seeing the last of his men die. He decided it was time to use the device the emperor gave him as a last resort. With faith everlasting and a heart full of resolve he grabbed the red monster, a clawed hand pierced his guts and he activated the cross around his chest.

There was flash of light as Abastein peaked out from his cover and Nakool covered her eyes from the bright light as a orb of light enveloped the astartes and Ellen. In the blinding white realm of the orb of light a aura fist slammed into Pax's face sending him flying off into the light.

On the outside Nakool and Abastein watched as the sphere of light shrunk to nothing leaving behind a cut out half sphere in the ground. As the sphere of light disappeared the only thing left behind was the cross pendent clattering to the center of the half sphere depressen.

* * *

 **[FLASHBACK END]**

The All mother hummed in thought as she processed the story she had just been told. It was beyond her wildest expectations and experiences. To think beyond the sky was a vast empty space separating so many worlds and that all the lights in the sky were other suns each with their own worlds orbiting them. And then there were the many races of Ellen's dimension, Protoss, Zerg, And others that made the All Mother feel home sick. She longed to see other beings like Ellen and Psyon, to converse with them and develop a relationship. The ability to form connections and relationships with others was one of the greatest desires the All Mother had and yet it was also what brought her sadness and sorrow as it could never be. Not while the gods of her world remained in power and threatened the All Mothers children to keep her in the prison world she was in. Although Psyons visits were a nice distraction when ever he did come by.

If she tried the All Mother could maybe break out of the pocket dimension... in time. But the gods being the ones to have created this not world, would no doubt sense such a disturbance and that would do no good.

Ellen sensing the All Mothers surface emotions decided to ask something.

"Is it possible to leave this place?"

The All Mother stopped and looking Ellen in the eyes. "It's... possible for you. But in order to pass the barrier a new body would be needed. This world already recognises you as a prisoner... but. If you gain a new body there would be some time before this world, would trap you again. Like me. I can not do such for myself... but for you."

Ellen felt a little reluctant to do this if it meant losing her Valkyrur powers. But on the other hand getting a sweet new monster body could be interesting. "Will I lose my current body?"

"Yes. Your body and essence will be changed. Remolded into a new form... of monsters like my kind. Though you may choose what you become."

 _"Huh? sounds like a evolution master. Only sexier looking"_ Ellen thought.

Ellen was left with a choice. Does she remain here trapped and a Valkyrur or does she take the plunged and become a monster or monster girl and leave this place. With a heavy sigh Ellen agreed to receive a new body. Staying here would be a pain and it's not like she could afford to wait around for some knight in shining armor to come along and rescue her. In fact the thought of her being rescued and swept off her feet by anyone like that was anathema to her. Well... if it was a cute boy that was also manly and had the courage to fight against overwhelming odds and risk his own life for her and his own convictions without being all goody goody like a cliche hero type from most anime and other fiction stories. Thats boring.

"Ok i'll do it. So uh how are you going to give me a new body?"

The All Mother chuckled as she spread her arms wide and the glyph on her belly glowed bright pink as a force pulled Ellen closer. "Now come into my womb."

"Hay hay, hold on a minute just w, wait!"

Before she could do anything Ellen was pulled into the body of the All Mother and shrunk to fit her womb. Ellen felt gagged by warm water as it flowed into her lungs feeling wrapped in a flesh wall that covered her like a cocoon. Ellen tried breathing but her lungs just filled with the orange liquid. But after a moment she was able to breath from the oxygenated water in her lungs. Given the situation and the environment Ellen was in she was reminded of the LCL in the entry plugs from that anime Neon genesis evangelion. It had the same qualities as the amber liquid that was lilith's blood.

The All Mother smiled sitting down, holding her belly while she focused on the inner world of her womb. "Ah! Im a mother again... So happy."

Having calmed down Ellen tried to focus on her own body and the changes she will receive and heard the All mothers voice in her head.

 **"Your new body can be empowered with energy from your... soul!"** the All Mother said surprised in the end as she accessed the power of Ellen's soul. **"Your soul! so powerful. You may choose many options. Your new form will be powerful. Perhaps even more then... No forget it**."

After a moment Ellen's mind was flooded with information about all the options she could choose from, their explanations and even images.

The first was a choice between three base form options.

Monster. Monster girl. Monster boy.

Ellen didn't really have to think too much on this one. In a choice between being a ugly beast or a boy! Monster girl wins hands down.

The All mothers voice echoed in Ellen's mind after she made her choice.

 **"You want to be one of my daughters? Promise me that... if you have children you will raise them better than me."**

The next choice was body size. The options ranged from fairy sized to a mountain. Ellen went with the safe choice of human sized.

 **"Once Humans were my children too... I miss those days."**

Next up was the body type. Biped. Quadruped. Serpentine. Arthropod. Flier. Other. Always the one to go outside the norm Ellen chose Other which was a more mixed body type.

 **"How... strange. Is this want you want?"**

Next was the monster type. Animal. Plant. Elemental. Crystalline. God-blooded. Chaotic.

Ellen looked through the options and their explanations thinking which one would be best suited for her. Eventually choosing Animal type.

Next up was choosing the many types of body parts she would have to use the energy of her soul to gain. They ranged from horns and wings to tails, mouths extra arms and many other options. Ellen took her time with this choice.

 **Chapter End**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

 **Enter The Fractal-verse Part 3**

* * *

Warm, wet, safe, protected. Ellen felt nostalgic as if she was remembering a past memory that she had forgotten from a time long ago. Suddenly the world shifted undulating moving her head first forwards and the world became flooded by white light. Ellen winched in pain from the brightness as she rolled on the ground feeling a few new appendages as she weakly stood on her knees. Her wet body feeling both new and heavier then it should be but that soon went away as she got used to it flexing her tail, wings and extra, pair of arms.

"Hurry now Ellen, time is short," The voice of the All Mother called out from behind Ellen." Run to the distant mountain and beyond it's peck you will find my world. Now go!"

For a moment Ellen thought of looking back but thought better of it. She focused on moving forwards even as her new eyes struggled to adjust to everything as she took one step at a time. It was like learning to walk again but far easier then the first time with the exception of the new parts that made her off balance as she stumbled on wards speeding up until she was in a full sprint. But soon the new body was doing what she wanted and Ellen started to run at a astonishing pace for her size.

Everything was a blur as she raced through the forest avoiding hitting ant trees and rocks as she went reaching the foot of the mountain in only a few minutes. She climbed on all fours up the steep hillside and when she encountered a obstacle she leaped over it continuing her climb. As the trek up became easier she took care not to grab a weak ledge or grab a slippery spot.

The path lead Ellen far higher then the peak and the land below started to fade behind her but as she passed the clouds she encountered a membrane like resistance that seemed to push her back down. Struggling through the invisible force Ellen reached the otherside that when crossed lead to a lake bottom. Water pressure crushed in from all sides as Ellen held her breath.

On the serene mirror surface of the lake water rippled as fish swam to and fro jumping out of the water to catch the insects that buzzed over the reflective water. A big fish jumped over a meter high catching a mouth full of flies. As it fell a clawed hand reached out of the water and Ellen gasped for air as the fish fell right on her head. *Twap* Ellen had a extremely unamused expression as the fish bounced of her head and into the water swimming as fast as it could from the intense killing intent directed at it.

"*Sigh* Right out of the gate and I get smacked in the head by fish! I hope that's not going to be a trend."

Ellen felt instant regret at saying that as she might have triggered a flag. Blowing a piece of stray hair off of her eyes Ellen swim to shore. The sun bathed her small frame in warm light that felt very different from the light in that other world. The sand on the beach was wiped aside by a reptilian tail covered in azur blue scales as Ellen turned around and stared across the lake. Far across on the other side there was a wall of snow capped mountains stretching from horizon to horizon in both directions indicating the lake was very wide and from the shape of the shore might look like a crescent.

Ellen listened to the voice of the lake as waves lapped at the shore line and the sunlight warmed her body. Looking down she saw a child's flat body ending in a pair of pointed digitigrade legs (her legs are straight like a humans but with two knee like joints one upper normal knee and the lower reverse knee shaped like a dragons with four clawed toes) covered in azure blue scales. The ones on the outside were thicker like armor while the inner scales got smaller and softer as they neared her inner thighs and her most important area. Raising her four arms Ellen saw that they were much the same with scales covering most of them except for the arm pits.

The lower arms ended in human like hands and were smaller and more delicate looking while the upper arms which were larger and more heavily armored with thick scales on each knuckle and ended in deadly claws. Looking over her back she saw a pair of folded feathered wings of deep azure blue extending from her back. Scales also covered her back along her spin like the arms and legs like natural armor ending at the sides of her torso.

Turning forward and looking up she noticed the tip of her white spiral horn. Reaching up she felt it's tip and ran her fingers down its double grooved shape to her skull where another sets of horns laid on the sides. Their surfaces glowing in bioluminescent light as their sensor organs took in energy date of the surrounding area. Ellen noticed she could sense the heat and energy of the surrounding area.

Ellen focused on the new sense she never had before and felt the differing energy waves of the surrounding area. Light, heat, electromagnetic and another she couldn't compare to anything else. Their were fish in the lake at 50 meters away. A squirrel like creature on a tree branch twenty meters away and ten feet high. And a few dozen birds nests in the treetops in a radius of 100 meters.

For a moment Ellen became enthralled in her new sense but shook her head remembering her situation and refocused.

Ellen didn't have time to worry about the lakes shape or her new body or senses as she felt vulnerable noticing that her stature had diminished since gaining a new body. Although the flesh was the same the structure and abilities were very different now. With loose wet hair flowing over he face Ellen looked up to a nearby bush along the tree line measuring her height to it and comparing the bush to the nearby trees she estimated that her current height was... around... four feet.

"Four feet!" she said with a depressed *sigh*. "Well I should at least get some place high and find out if there's anything around here."

Within a few minutes a big tree taller then the others was found and with all four arms and reptile like clawed feet she climbed. Using the lower smaller pair of arms to hold onto the trunk Ellen used her larger pair to grasped higher holding points as she pulled herself up pushing with her legs. Ellen popped her head out from the leafy tree top, surveying the surrounding forest that stretched as far as her sapphire blue eyes could see other then the lake.

"Well... it's a big ass forest." Ellen said with a yawn.

Deciding to take the time to sleep in the high tree she climbed down to a flatter upper limb and laid along it relaxing as she rested for a bit.

* * *

Three days later.

In a valley a small forest village rested in between two mountain's. Above the valley on a high cliff overlooking the village a large ivory paw with golden claws stepped upon the cliff edge, its owner a ivory lion with a golden main around its neck silently observed the village from afar.

"So this is the place the place the prophecy spoke of." the lion spoke in a deep commanding voice that commanded respect."

In a simple two story wooden house overlooking the village the morning sun light flooded in through the window. The light reached a large five feet wide wide bowel of green jello like matter warming it up. Soon the green matter started to ripple and shift upwards changing into a smooth featureless upper humanoid form of a woman.

*YAWN!* the slime girl exclaimed lazely looking around as a red feathered harpy girl wearing a simple pair of shorts and a band across her chest walked in.

Her wings had three scaled and clawed fingers at the middle wrist like joint where the wings folded up and scaled legs from the knees down that ended in large sharp talons.

"Morning," the harpy girl greeted. "Hey you need to get up if were going to get to work on time."

The slime girl tilted her head to one side letting her semi-liquid hair flop to one side. "I don't feel like it today," she said in a disinterested tone.

"Huh? really. But you like those smoked meat the restaurant has right. And we need money to buy that stuff right."

The slime girls eyes lit up and mouth opened as she remembered the savory flavor and test of the smoked meat grilled at the villages local bar and grill. "Ok ok im up."

The slime girl said as she shifted her semi liquid mass out of the bowl.

The harpy girl pounced on the slime girl and zipped out the window. The slime girls body flopped in the talons of the harpy girl as they flew down the cliff over the town and over to the mine a few miles away from the village.

At the mine entrance a few dozen humans and Mamono (monster girls) of differing races went about their hard at work moving large metal carts of rocks and dirt around. The ore the miners bring up was nothing special but it brought a income for the village when it was sold to the nearby towns. But because of the empires increasing anti monster stances and policies it has become harder to sell as of late.

The red feathered harpy girl swooped down landing near a building of brick and mortar by the mine's main shaft entrance catching the attention of a human in brown jacket and pants.

"Hey Mista you got a minute." he said waking over.

Mista the harpy girl turned to him. "What is it Anthony?"

"I was wondering if you could fly to Carbany village and pick up a pouch of blasting gel," Anthony explained as the slime girl reformed into her humanoid form.

"Oh uh does it have to be Carbany. I didn't get a very nice reception there last time."

"Is it getting that bad over there?" Anthony asked in a concerned tone.

Mista slouched her head. "Let's just say I got a few arrows shot at me last time. *Exacerbated huff*"

Anthony rubbed the back of his head. "If it was that bad last time I couldn't send you over there now. I'll just have to find another place to get the blasting gel. I'll get back to you when I get word of a new seller."

Mista shrugged. "Ok just tell me. I like flying the long distance jobs you give me. Me and Lulu are going to work now."

Anthony got a unnerved expression on his face. "Uh... ok. Just don't cause another cave in like last time."

"Ok I'll tune my power down... a little."

"I'll head over to the purifying pools then," Lulu stated as she slid away.

Down in the mine humans and some beast type Mamono hulled out rocks and ore on metal carts on tracks. There were even a few Dwarves who served as mining instructors hired by the town to improve their output and safety after a few people nearly died from a cave in weeks ago.

"Hay Mista!" a dwarf yelled as she saw the harpy try sneaking by him.

Mista sweated as she faced the dwarf. "Oh Grarurim nice to see you to day I...was just-"

"Just what! Going to blast another tunnel down again. Those wind drills yous got is nice and all but you can't control it. Remember what happened last time!"

Mista made a sad puppy dog eyes. "But if I don't work I can't buy food and if I can't buy food i'll starve."

But it didn't work on the 152 year old dwarf as he gave the young harpy a stone face answer. "Don't give me those eyes. If you want to work down here then pick up a shovel or pickaxe and dig"

Mista nearly broke into tears as she lifted raised her wings and flexed her scaled fingers and thumbs. "But... but... I you know."

Grarurim was unmoved. "Then use those talons of yours and cut the larger rockes up into smaller pieces or pick through the dirt. I know harpies like you can slice threw solid rock like a magic sword threw the steel."

Mista almost started crying. "But... but I might chip a nail or claw?"

The dwarf turned around and walked off. "Then I guess you won't get payed. Now either get to work or leave."

Mista was sobbing by this point. "Waaaa meanie."

Five minutes later Mista was begrudgingly sliced through boulders the size of basket ball's with a single swing of her scaled legs along side the other miners picking and digging through dirt and solid granite rocks. Up at the surface Lulu had joined the other slimes in the raised ore purifying pools where they used their slime abilities to dissolve the dirt only leaving behind the iron and copper ore that they spat out into the lower pools and into catch filters where the ore bits were collected and separated by humans and placed into the smelting furnace where the ore was made into manageable ingots and carted to the warehouse.

In a large expensive looking log cabin overlooking the mine a old man the owner of the mines sat with a mature slime girl on the balcony shearing some drinks.

"Oh! it seems the trouble in the surrounding towns has gotten worse." Old man Gerald commented as he poured some tea for his wife.

"It's getting worse on the continent from what I hear. The empires anti-monster laws and actions have made it so many of my kind are having to relocate closer to the demon lords lands and many are simply crossing the sword sea, " Musa stated taking a drink of the tea.

Gerald nodded disappointingly at his fellow humans intolerant behaviour. "I wise those religious war mongers would understand that mutual relationships between our races is for the best." Gerald said looking out to the busy mine below. "If it wasn't for the slimes and other races helping out this small town wouldn't have even existed in the first place."

Musa nodded. "One race can only do something so well but many races working together can achieve far more things together. Is that not the reason we first helped each other out so long ago," Musa said with a elegant smile.

Old man Gerald smiled back. "If it wasn't for you helping me find and mine the rich ore deposits in this remote mountain range all those years ago there wouldn't be a village here."

* * *

On the cliff overlooking the village the ivory an gold lion sat like a statue waiting for the appointed time to act. His silver eyes watching emotionlessly as the clouds pass overhead.

* * *

Hours later in the villages bar and tavern Mista walked in wings dragging on the floor covered in sweat. Her face long and worn out. She took a seat on the far left bar stool along the wall as the male human bartender cleaned a glass putting it back with the others before walking over to Mista.

"Two of the usual Mista," the man asked.

"Yeah please," Mista replied laying her head on the countertop.

The bartender reached back and started pouring some drinks when Lulu rolled in through the swinging doors reforming into her humanoid form and quickly finding and joining Mista.

"Hey. Mista. You forgot to pick up your pay for this week's work," Lulu stated joining her housemate.

Mista shot up staring at Lulu. "What! aw man now I got ta go back and-."

"Here." Lulu said pulling a pouch of silver and brass out of her body placing it on the countertop.

Mista grabbed the pouch and started rubbing her face on it. "Oh thank you thank you Lulu you always are reliable."

The bartender placed Mista's drink in front of her while Lulu started at her blankly. "Of course I am bird brain," Lulu stated pating Mista on the back.

A beast Kin girl in a leather armor leotard walked up to the two as Mista chugged her drink. "Hey Mista can I hire you for a job?"

Both Lulu and Mista turned at her. "Oh sure Fuma. What's the job?"

Lulu asked the bartender for five piece of grilled meat.

"Mah! theres a group of shadow beasts lounging around a cave some miles outside town. Since its the militia's job to protect the town were going to chase them off. Is tomorrow ok."

"I guess? but what do you need me for. I'm not exactly a fighter."

"Oh we just want you to watch them and if any head for the village swoop down and chase it the other way. Shadow beasts are really fast and the landscape in that area is uneven and rocky so horses won't cut it which leaves us using just our feet and harpies like you. But I may need you to do some demolition with your wind magic."

Mista drank another few large chugges of her alcohol. "Meh ok. I am the fastest harpy in town anyway." she said with a smile.

* * *

The next day the sun rose beaming it's light on Ellen's sleepy child like face. Her eyes blinked open as the light warmed her face. Shitting up she rubbed her eyes with a yawn looking around. "Oh man that nap felt nice... how long was I out for?"

Ellen hopped off the tree limb landing with a thump as her semi-digitigrade legs easily took the fall force with the extra leg joint. Over the next few hours she wandered about the forest looking for any trace of civilization but finding none.

"Guess i'm in the boondocks then huh? Wonder how far i'm from the nearest town?"

Ellen marched on passing a tree fallen across a creek. Climbing a large boulder up to a elevated piece of land. She ran and jumped across a small reven landing in a roll on the other side. She trekked through the forest sometimes running full sprint for hours going deeper and deeper over hills and rivers until reaching a cave.

"Huh? Seems safe enough... or it could be occupied by something I don't want to meet."

Ellen thought as she smelled the scent of blood emanating from the cave. She changed her mind deciding to test her strength out on some nearby rocks. Rotating her upper arms fist as she pulled them back before releasing them into a flurry rapid strikes against the boulder producing a series of small cracks.

"Sweet!" she exclaimed examining her handy work.

Ellen stuck the rock again and again and again until it was completely broken and shattered leaving not but a rough stone stump sticking out of the ground.

"Ok if I encounter anything small enough I should be ok."

Ellen continued to train as she punched the air and swung her tail wiping it around using the nearby trees for practice as she cracked and broke the weaker trees.

Ellen was getting used to her new body very quickly.

As Ellen trained a group of shadows moved through the trees. All three moving on four legs like a wolf but with a body frame and muscles like a bear covered in jet black fur. The two others flanked Ellen on both sides as she continued to train clawing large gouges out of the surrounding rocks and trees.

All three of the shadow wolves bore hungry fangs at the young monster girl thinking her to be easy prey. All at once they lunged at her. One aimed for her small throat, another her leg and the third her body. The fangs were nearly upon her and snapped shut catching nothing but air.

The three shadow beasts looked around confused at their preys vanishing. Their confusion was interrupted as a large rock a fragment of the large one Ellen shattered earlier slammed upon one of the three beast's crushing his skull. While one of the shadow beasts was staring at their dead packmate the other spotted Ellen as she jumped on its back jabbing her claws in and tearing at it's spine.

The beast whimpered out in pain as its back legs gave out as the nerves were severed with it's spine. The third shadow beast regaining its senses lunged at Ellen as she just rolled away. The remaining enraged shadow beast snarled at Ellen as she stood back up and replied with some fangs of her own. The two circled each other for a few moments until the beast could not wait any longer and lunged at her it's jaws wide and claws out. In the instant the beast jumped Ellen slif forwards on her back kicking with all her might, landing a solid blow to its' ribs and launching it ten feet into the air. As the would be predator started to fall back down Ellen leaped back top her feet and pulled back a haymaker and punched smashing through flesh, bones and organs as the shadow beast landed on her.

The corpse of the third shadow beast flopped to the ground as the smaller form of Ellen stood over them. She looked at her arm covered in blood and piece's of flesh feeling a instinctual hunger. Slowly she brought her arm up and licked it savoring the taste as the blood and meaty bits sloshed around in her mouth as a satisfied smile broke across her face.

* * *

A hour later a group of militiamen consisting of humans and beast kin girls ranging from cats to rabbits types plus one harpy flying over head made their way through the forest. The group kept their wits about them looking in their designated directions watching out for any threats that may come. As they moved across a grassy hill a tree collapsed suddenly from a large armored worm like creature unearthing itself baring a ringed mouth full of sharp teeth at the militia.

"Death worm!" Fuma shouted. "Mista hit it from above. Arch, Nash flank it. Everyone else keep your distance and hit it with arrows."

The militia burst into action following their captains orders. The two humans Arch and Nash flanked the hundred foot long worm and speared it while a rain of arrows pierced the soft hide between the armor plating. The worm thrashed about in pain as Nash and Arch jumped out of the way having some experience with death worms before.

Meanwhile Mista hovered over head focusing her wind magic inherent to all harpies as she gathered air to her legs forming it into a compressed ball, and with a kick of her taloned foot launched the orb of compressed air at the worm. A loud *BANG* reverberated through the forest scaring birds and small animals as the worm was blasted to pieces by the magic air bolt attack (as in crossbow bolt but exploding compressed air).

Not far off at the cave Ellen stopped what she was doing and raised a hear at the sound of a explosion.

The militia all stared at the two pieces of the death worm as its bloody bits and gore spilled out onto the landscape. One of the cat girls looked over at Mista who landed nearby. "Remind me not to piss you off."

"Wise I could use magic like that," Arch stated in jealousy.

"Yeah it would be cool," Nash replied resting his spear shaft on his shoulder. "But we weren't born with a affinity for it so were out of luck bro."

Fuma turned to her men. "Ok that's enough chit chat let's get to the cave and get the job done or none of use will get paid."

The group headed off again making good time for the cave but still taking a full hour.

Fuma eyed the caves opening while Mista looked up at the mid day sun shining through the two hundred foot tall trees.

"Theirs signs of lots of blood around the entrance," Fuma said.

"So what's the plan boss?" Arch asked from behind Fuma.

"We split up and surround the entrance from all sides. Then a four man team go in to get the shadow beasts attention. Then we get them to chase us out and Mista blasts the cave closed so it cant be used again."

Mista made a questioning look at Fuma. "Why not just kill them?"

Fuma turned to Mista. "I'm a staunch believer in karma and what goes around comes around. So I don't like to kill unless it's absolutely necessary. Besides these shadow beasts are no different than us. Their just living the best way they can. I can't just kill them because their being a nuisance."

Arch, Nash and everyone else stared at Fuma with a annoyed expressions. "Yeah that's why it's a pain to be your teammate some times," Arch said.

"Very. Remember the troll incident," Nash said making nearly everyone face palme in recollection of the event.

"Troll?" Mista wondered.

One of the cat girls leaned over to Mista's ear. "Trust me your don't want to know. It got... bad."

Fuma coughed to clear her throat. *Cough* "Anyway let's get to work people."

"Yes ma'am," they all said.

Mista flew up to a large tree branch and perched until she was needed. Watching as the other militia teams split up as per the plan. With skill and silent movements they surrounded the cave while a four person group including Fuma entered the cave weapons drawn.

In the cave tunnel Fuma and the others kept a close eye out in the darkness as their beast kin eyes adapted to. Slowly and cautiously they progressed onward.

"Hey Fuma" said a tiger girl as she shifted the air. "I smell blood from a fresh kill! lots."

Fuma and the others felt uneasy stopping a moment.

"Blood?" stated Rabbit girl.

"Yeah I smell it too. Wonder what they hunted?" said a cat girl.

"Guess we'll find out," said a wolf girl.

Fuma nodded. "Yeah. Keep your eyes open and senses sharp."

Moving deeper in the group entered into large cave chamber with the bones of many animals laying about as faint chewing and ripping noises were heard echoing through the pitch black cave.

Fuma's night vision allowed her the the ability to clearly see something in the center of the room. It was a pile of large dark fur with the smell of blood from a fresh kill wafting about the air as a shadowed figure munched and chewed.

"Keep calm. We can't fight them in the cave so be ready to run. I'll check it out myself," Fuma said in a soft low voice.

The others gave her a silent nod to confirm they understood. She silently crept forwards passing a large rock to get a better view. Peeking around the rock she was greeted by the sight of the shadow beasts bodies being eaten by a small Mamono with odd features including a single spiral horn like a unicorns, draconic scales and claws with feathered wings all stained in blood.

Blinking at the sight Fuma didn't know what to think. On one hand a unknown race of monster girl was eating the bodies of the shadow beasts meaning the threat had been neutralized. But on the other who was the girl and how strong was she to have been able to kill the shadow beasts on her own if she was alone?.

Such thoughts swirled about Fumas head as she drew back behind the stone thinking how to proceed. She took in a deep breath and returned to the others.

"So what's in their?" asked the cat girl.

"Well... the shadow beasts are dead. And there's a odd Mamono child eating their corpses."

The other three militia members all had a what? faces on. A minute later the four were peeking out around the rock at the odd Child as she happily munched on the bloody end trails of the shadow beasts.

"Ok i've never seen a Mamono race like that before?" rabbit girl said.

"Me either?" Wolf girl said.

"Looks like a dragon or a lizard type with those scales. But the wings are feathered?" the cat girl said.

The child stopped and stood still for a moment before slowly turning around.

By the time Ellen had the rock in view the people were all back behind it even though she could still sense their bodies energy.

 _"What are they doing?"_ she thought as the blood dripped from her claws and mouth.

Ellen looked down at her red stained body suddenly realizing what she had done. All at once the revulsion of having eaten uncooked meat and ripping out the organs of the creatures hit her and she *gasped* standing up in shock.

"Eh! what the hell? ugh I feel sick," placing her lower hands mouth. "Ugh uhh why did I eat that raw? uhh. I could have at least cooked it. Uh but I don't know how to use fire magic yet." Ellen slouched in despair. "Did I enter a hunger crazed state? I was just reborn and hadn't eaten in... I don't know for how long. Guess it's this body. If I don't eat I go into a feeding frenzy." Ellen looked up at the cave ceiling. "Oh we'll better to keep myself well fed then. Don't want to end up eating someone." Ellen's gaze turned to the rock the people were hiding behind. "Hey."

Fuma and the others all eyed each other. "Well she can talk so we should at least here her story," the cat girl said.

"Agreed," the rabbit girl said.

Fuma and her three companions walked out from behind the rock into Ellen's view.

"So uh what's your name little one," Fuma asked.

If Ellen was the shallow type she would have gotten angry at the comment on her size but she was a mature adult, at least on the inside. "My name is Ellen. Who are you a group of furries,"

Fuma and her group all scratched their head at the comment. "What's... a furry?" the wolf girl asked.

"Anyway moving on." Fuma said, "Ellen was it. What kind of Mamono are you?"

Ellen looked down giving herself a look over. "Hmm I guess a hybrid chimera of a unicorn, dragon and angle. Or something like that?"

Fumas group scratched their heads again at the self description seeing the reasoning.

"Ok well Ellen can I ask. Did you kill these shadow beasts," Fuma asked again.

"Yes."

"That's... quite an achievement for a child your age."

"I'ed say she's no more than six at most," the rabbit girl commented.

"How strong is she?" the cat girl asked.

"Ellen are your parents close by," Fuma asked ignoring the others.

Ellen paused a bit thinking it over. She didn't want to involve random people in her problems but at the same time she wanted to find a town and get the lay of the land. Back when she read the All Mothers mind she only got fragmented information that is by now at least a few centuries old and outdated. Finding out the name of the country and the geopolitics of the world were key to learning of a way to return to her own reality. Ellen also decided to not mention the All Mother at all because she doesn't know who to trust with that kind of information. No need to cause the All Mother trouble if it can be avoided.

"Im alone. I don't know about my parents. Only that I woke up and swam out from a lake a long way away from here. That's all I remember."

Fuma *sighed* not knowing what to think of the situation. She only knew that the problem of the shadow beasts had been dealt with if even in a way she didn't like and now there is a young child with amnesia all alone who is powerful enough to kill said shadow beasts on her own which is saying something.

"Hey Ellen how would you like to come back with my group to our town?"

 _"Finally you asked the question"_ Ellen thought wanting to get back to wherever these people are from. "Yeah. I feel tired." at that Ellen promptly yawned showing off her sharp k9 teeth.

Outside Mista, Arch, Nash and the others waited for the impending rampaging shadow beasts only to see Fuma and her group walk out of the cave with a odd Mamono in tow.

"Huh? who's that," Mista said as she flew down to meet them.

Arch and Nash and their teams left their cover and joined the others.

"What's going on Fuma? whos this little kid?" Nash asked.

"And why's she naked?" Arch asked feeling uncomfortable around the nude child.

Ellen got the hint suddenly feeling a little embarrassed and folded her wings over her front like a cape. The others looked a little more relaxed after that.

"We found her in the cave," Fuma explained. "She killed the shadow beasts and was eating them. I... guess she was hungry "Fuma said trying to keep a straight face. " She said came from a lake in the forest somewhere."

"Really? you got too be kidding me," Nash exclaimed.

Mista and Ellen shared a glance. "You must be lonely wandering around the forest by yourself."

"Not really. I haven't been out here for more than a two days" she replied.

Hours later the militia and the strange child were at the tavern. Fuma and the others were all drinking at their tables while Mista and Ellen were having glasses of orange juice in a corner stall by the left corner of the bar.

"So where did the kid come from?" the bartender asked.

"We found her in a cave eating shadow beast guts if you can believe it," Fuma answered taking a deep swig of her beer.

"Really? well if she doesn't have any close relatives what are you going to do with her," the bartender asked.

"Well I was thinking of going to the village chief and asking him for advice, or at the least dropping her off there and leaving it to him to decide."

Ellen's ears twitched as she listened in on the conversation regarding her.

"Hey Ellen do you really not remember anything?" Mista asked again sounding concerned.

Ellen stopped sipping her drink and turned to the harpy girl. "No I don't remember anything from before the lake. Other then that fish slapping me in the face," Ellen said with a annoyed expression.

"Oh is that so." Mista replied imagining cooked fish for dinner.

Ellen felt like she had a story and it wasn't like she was busy. "Mista is something wrong?" she asked.

Mista looked deeply into her half empty cup of juice as she thought. "We'll. I don't know my parents either." Ellen listened more intently as she continued. "I was found around twenty years ago in the forest just a newborn all alone. The village chief and his wife raised me and i've lived here ever since."

 _"I guess stuff like that happens even in_ _alternat_ _e dimensions."_ Ellen thought taking another sip of her drink.

* * *

Sometime later the in the village chief's house.

Old man Gerald sat beside his wife giving Ellen a smile as she sat in Mista's lap while fuma sat beside them explaining the situation. "So that's little Ellen's story. It's a odd tail and for one so young to defeat three shadows beast's on their own?!"

"I know it's a odd situation but could you think of something to do for her. I can't take care of her I have duties in the militia," Fuma stated.

Gerald crossed his arms in thought as his slime wife Musa gave Ellen a smile. "We'll I guess we could take care of her."

As Gerald thought Lulu moved up the stairs around the corner into the room. "Hey Mista what ya doing in here i've been looking everywhere for you..." Lulu asked finally finding her hose mate.

Mista turned to her housemate. "Oh Lulu sorry. I guess i've been a little busy lately."

Lulu eyed Mista as she gave her explanation but then Ellen turned to Lulu, their eyes meeting instantly sparking a fire in Lulu as she had one thought running through her mind.

 _"Cute!"_ The slime girl thought as she stared into the young face of the child. Taking in every feature of her face from the deep blue hair to her bright sapphire blue eyes and young youthful face. And the Single spiral white horne extending out of her forehead.

Ellen got a cold shiver down her spin but it was too late a warning as Lulu pounced on both her and Mista engulfing both but spitting Mista out while wrapping her slimy body around Ellen.

"She's so cute." Lulu exclaimed smothering the little Mamono.

Ellen felt very uncomfortable as the slime girl enveloped her and squeezed like a schoolgirl would a teddy bear their boyfriend got them on a date. But oddly enough It wasn't all that unpleasant. In fact it was kind of comforting in a odd way. Reminding Ellen of the times in the far distant past where her own mother would hug and hold her in her arms back when she was as young as she looked.

"Hay Lulu! could you knock it off you going to squeeze her to death!" Mista shouted.

"Actually it kind of feels nice," Ellen said softly as she just went with the flow of the situation.

Lulu shot Mista an emotionless look. "I'm keeping her," she said matter of factly while hugging the dickens out of Ellen.

Mista shrugged while Fuma, Gerald and his wife Musa watched with amused grins on their faces.

"Lulu we can't afford to take care of a kid and besides nether of us are over twenty nore do we know the first thing about raising a child."

"Don't care," Lulu replied hugging Ellen tighter.

*Sigh* "Chief please talk some sense into her. She's your granddaughter," Mista said pleading.

"He he. Mista I think i'm a little to old to raise another child and besides maybe it will be a good learning experience for the both of you," Gerald replied stroking his beard.

"And I think Lulu will be happy as well," Musa said with a amused smile at seeing her grand daughter fawn over the child.

While everyone else talked and grumbled over who would get her Ellen was in a state of confusion and regret _. "I went from the empress of a swarm of zerg to the adopted child of these fantasy world rejects._ What is my life. _"_ Ellen mumbled as she relaxed in the smooth slimy gripe she was in.

* * *

*Sploosh* a bucket of water poured on Ellen's head as she sat in a bathtub with Lulu and Mista.

"Rub rub scrub scrub let's get into those hard to reach places," Lulu said in song as she washed Ellen's body.

Mista sat in the left side of the rather large Bath tube while Lulu on the right and Ellen in the middle. Mista ducked under the water and out again shaking her wet head off as her feathers sagged from the water.

"So Ellen are you ok with staying with us? Were not exactly the best caretakers," Mista asked.

Ellen felt relaxed with a happy expression on her face with soap suds all over as Lulu washed her back with her soaped up blob like body. "I don't mind. I need a place to stay anyway."

Mista eyed Ellen with a question hanging on her mind. "Hey Ellen you seem more mature then you look. Are you really a child?"

Ellen couldn't help but tell the truth just to see their reactions.

"I'm really over two hundred years old and the leader of a race of super powerful monsters that can evolve themselves and gain the abilities of other spices by eating their flesh but that was in another universe. I got caught in a trap and sent to this world in this new body. So I guess it's like I was reincarnated or something."

Mista and Lulu were speechless as they both stared at Ellen and then to each other not knowing what to think of the explanation. On one hand it was far too detailed to be a lie or made up but on the other it just sounded crazy. Lulu and Mist reacted the only way they felt comfortable with.

"Uh... oh really that's... interesting," Mista replied.

"It sounds like your far from home. Eh do... you miss you family?" Lulu asked.

Ellen thought on the question remembering her parents, Aliasse, and all the Zerg servants she left behind wondering what they were up to right now. "Yes. A little."

Sensing the sadness in her voice Mista grabbed a bucket of water and dumped it on Ellen's head. Ellen shook her drenched head staring daggers at the wet bird girl growling in annoyance as she grinned at her work. "Snap out of it. If you keep your face like that it might stay that way forever so smile."

Ellen took the effort as Mistas way of cheering her up and it worked. Weather it was the child like body and emotions or her own sense of nostalgia from her own childhood Ellen felt relieved and happy for the first time in a long time. She felt like she could just relax without anything serious or major needing her attention. For the first time in a long time the swarm empress let the world go and did not care about anything but having fun and just living.

* * *

 **Gerald's house**

Gerald sat in his favorite chair facing the window in the main room as the flickering of candlelight lit the book he was reading. The title read Mamono and their many species.

"So what do you think of that little kid?" Musa asked as she cam from behind wrapping her arms around her husbands shoulders.

Gerald closed the book. "I don't know what Mamono race she's from but she seems far more mature for her age. If she even is a child."

Musa humed in thought. "You may be right. I wonder where she came from? Maybe the demon lord would know? or one of the heavenly knight's."

Gerald placed a hand on Musa's arm. "I thought you were done with that part of your life. Don't tell me you want to go back to that life."

"Not really but. If it would help that child I may be willing to get in contact with some of my old friends."

* * *

 **Next morning**

Ellen awoke in bed with a bird foot lying next to her head. Sunlight started to fill the room as she blinked awake from her slumber. Cracking her sleepy eyes open she blinked waking up from a relaxing night's sleep. "It might be cliche but. That's an unfamiliar ceiling."

Ellen felt like she was repeating the time she first woke up in that hospital so long ago. Lifting her head a little she looked over the bed to see Mista happelly snoring away with one of her legs on Ellen. _"How did she get into that position?"_ she thought.

Not carrying for the answer Ellen grabbed the leg and removing it off of herself and got up.

With a big stretch she yawned. Looking around Ellen took in the normal looking bedroom. Normal looking with the exception of the slime girl resting in a large pot in the middle of the room that is.

Ellen got up and decided to checkout the house she would be staying at for the foreseeable future. Walking down the stairs she entered the main room where a normal table and chairs sat to the left side with a what looked like a kitchen on the right along the wall. There was one door one on the right wall leading to the bathroom and another door in the front wall being the front door.

Ellen walked into the middle of the room looking around. From the way everything looked it seemed like the technology of the era was around that the 18th or 19th centuries. There were also some odd shaped objects on a shelf on the wall close to the table. They looked like special looking rocks. Maybe just collectables Lulu and Mista found somewhere.

Ellen had a idea since she was the first to wake up. "Hmm I could make breakfast. My as well pull my weight since im living here."

Minutes later up in the bedroom Mista laid comfortable stretched out in bed while a smell wafted into the room from down stairs. Mista unconsciously sniffed the air and a moment later her body shot up sniffing more intently before opening her eyes. "Food?! Someone's making food. *Sniff*sniff* it smells nice."

The noise of Mistas words brought Lulu up out of her tub shifting into a humanoid form again. "Morning."

"Morning, Lulu. Hey do you smell that it smells like someone making breakfast."

Lulu *sighed* "No I can't smell because slime's don't have a sense of smell remember."

Mista suddenly remembered slimes don't have a nose. But they do have the other senses of taste, touch, hearing and sight.

Together Lulu and Mista silently went down stairs peeking their heads down the stairs into the main room where they spotted Ellen fixing up some food over a open flame. The smell drew Mista closer and being hungry herself Lulu followed down the stairs.

"Morning," Ellen said without turning while flipping a few eggs and sausages over.

Ellen then took a piece of cabbage and some carrots dicing them up into small pieces on a cutting board then placing them in a large bowl and mixing in some spices off the shelf she had tasted then placed the spiced up salad on three plate's then adding the cooked eggs and sausage on the same three plates.

"I'm not the best cook so sorry if its a little simple," Ellen said as she, Lulu and Mista took their seats around the table.

Mista eagerly sniffed the food while Lulu eyed it both wondering what it tastes like.

"Thanks for the food," Ellen said before she dug in.

Mista and Lulu both looked at her then back to the food and dug in.

Mista poked her fork in the salad getting some pieces of carrots and cabbage tasting a mouth full experimentally. " *Chewing noise* Mmm. Not bad."

Lulu took a look at the cooked eggs and sausage on her plate grabbing a piece of egg and placing it over her mouth as if to let it drop in.

Ellen noticed and snapped at her. "Lulu mind you table manner's. Use the forks. It's proper etiquette. You got... uh? you can make hands can't you?"

With some disappointment and feeling a little embarrassed Lulu dropped the egg back on her plate and picked up the fork beside her plate. Ellen watched as Lulu used her fork to pick up the same piece of egg and place it in her mouth and swallowed. The dissolving food was barely visible through her semi transparent body as it was consumed by the slimes acids.

"Good Lulu that's how you properly eat at the table understood," Ellen said praising the slime girl.

Mista could only grin at the scene. _"Hehe. Maybe that story about her being over two hundred years old was true given the way she talks."_

The three continued eating their morning meal talking and enjoying themselves until the plates were empty.

"Oh Mista I meant to asked you how much money do you have? You barely had any food." Ellen asked.

Mista made a disappointed face and slouched forwards. "As usual. We hardly ever have a full pantry."

Ellen hummed in thought. "Are the two of you poor or something?"

Lulu and Mista shard a glance before turning back to Ellen. "Eh we'll not really but well we don't really buy all that much food," Mista said looking embarrassed.

"I'm surprised that there was any food left in the house." Lulu said. "We normally just go out into the forest and find something to eat their or we go to the bar."

Ellen felt curious as to why that is. "What do you use the money for then?"

"Well the two of us have a dream." Mista stated eagerly. "We're saving up so that we can travel the world one day." she said excitingly holding her wing out.

Lulu cut in with a voice that seemed more enthusiastic the normal. "We can travel all we want but it takes money to cross the borders of certain nations."

Mista cut in with a upbeat tone. "And it takes lots of money to buy souvenirs and food."

Ellen felt a little differently about these two now that she knows their dream. "I guess the two of you feel stuck in this town and want to get out then huh?"

Mista hummed looking at her empty plate lost in thought."We don't hate this small isolated town but," She turned back to Ellen. "We just want to see more to the world then what we can in the small corner we live in. I mean we're in the middle of nowhere here."

"I want to see the ocean," Lulu stated with a grin.

"So you save up all the money you get paid for for traveling the world one day huh. Well anyway since i'm here I may as well pull my own weight. So i'll need a job. Do the two of you know where I can get one."

"Hey hey." Mista exclaimed wagging a clawed finger. "Were your guardians now so it's our responsibility to take care of you so you don't need to do that. And besides it would make us look like bad adults if we couldn't take care of a child after agreeing to take you in our home."

Ellen sighed in mild frustration at being in a child's body and how others perceive her and treat her. "I understand but as I said last night. Despite my appearance i'm over two hundred years old. I can take care of myself. So I at least need a job. And if I help bring in more money the two of you can start you trek around the world sooner."

Lulu and Mista talked it over as Ellen collected the plates and placed them in the sink and washed them.

"OK Ellen," Mista started. "Well be ok with you getting a job. That is of course if you can land one. There's not all that many openings for new employment I can think of."

"I can take a day off and help her around town," Lulu said as she enveloped Ellen in her amorphes body.

"Eeh! don't do that without any warning. Ehh Lulu!"

Lulu only enjoyed cuddling the helplessly cute Ellen as she struggled.

"We'll i'll be heading to work then. See ya later," Mista said as she left out the front door followed by Lulu and Ellen still stuck inside her.

"Ok have a nice day," Lulu said as she carried Ellen down the steps.

Mista took to the air flying off while Lulu brought Ellen over to a clearing that overlooked the village.

Ellen noticed and became concerned. "Eh Lulu what are you doing? That's a cliff! Lulu? Lulu!"

Lulu approached the cliff and completely enveloping Ellen and turning into a sphere that rolled off the cliff. Inside the slime sphere Ellen was rolling around with the walls as they careened down the cliff full speed toward's the town below. Lulu hit a rock launching them up into the air. Ellen grabbed her mouth feeling sick from the rotation. Lulu lost speed and fell smacking into the side of a tree. They fell landing at the base only to start rolling again this time Lulu took more control evading on coming rocks and trees as they rolled down the hill.

A few moments of rolling stupidly fast they reached the edges of town causing people (mamono and human) to get out of the way as they crashed into a store front that just so happens to be one of Lulu's favorite places in town.

A candy shop.

Lulu shifted and reformed into her semi humanoid form as she entered with a *chime" of a bell. "Hello Miss lena," she greeted the middle aged woman behind the counter.

"Ow miss Lulu it's nice to see you. And who is this?" Miss Lena asked looking at Ellen (still nude btw) laying on the floor dizzy from the trip.

"Oh this is Ellen. Me and Mista adopted her last night," she said with a straight face like it was another normal day.

"Oh! I see. I never thought you two would ever take in a child?"

"Things just turned out that way," Lulu said while grabbing the dizzy Ellen and holding her like a doll arms crossed over her.

"Oh that reminds me Lulu we just got a new bunch of those chewy candies just the other day. I think their called caramel. I tried some and they melted in my mouth and were so chewy."

Lulu listened developing a lustful hungry look to her eyes. "Ehhh ca can I have some please," she pleaded producing a small solid steel box from her body.

"Oh of course. Your one of my best customers after all."

The old lady reached behind the counter placing a small bag on the counter. She rang the order up and Lulu opened the small steel box placing some copper coins on the counter as Ellen recovered and started looking around to get her barring's. "Ugh where are we?"

Ellen noticed that Lulu was holding her and looked up to see the slime girl put something in her mouth and enjoy it immensely as she smiled and hummed in delight savoring the taste.

"Here you go deary enjoy," Lena said shoving a piece of candy into Ellens mouth.

Ellen was surprised at first but then she tasted a familiar sensation. Something she had almost forgotten about as she rolled the soft candy around in her mouth _._

 _"Is this caramel! Aaa sweet sweet caramel how i've missed thee."_ she thought enjoying it thoroughly.

Miss Lena smiled as Lulu and Ellen enjoyed their candy.

"More please," Ellen said having swallowed the little bit left over.

"Ok say Aaaaa," Lulu said bringing another treat up to Ellens face which she took happly.

Old woman Lena chuckled a little at the young child's enjoyment of her sweets. "Haha. Little Ellen likes them just as much as you do Lulu. And by the way Lulu I think you should stop over at The clothing store. I know some of you Mamono don't where cloth's all the time and some none at all but Ellen here is quite revealing as to her... body. Understand."

Lulu looked down at Ellen making a Oh! face. "Oh!... your right. You humans are embarrassed at seeing others nude aren't you."

Miss Lena just nodded.

"Ok I guess we can head over there next. I'll just keep her in here like this for now," Lulu said enveloping Ellen into her chest up to her head.

Ellen felt the gelatinous blob's of slime press against both sides but decided she didn't care all that much as she had a mouth full of caramel to suck on. But she would need to have a talk with Lulu about this later.

Lulu slid her way out the door as another customer was about to enter. The man had a stunned look on his face as he saw a little girls head sandwiched between Lulus large round nippless slime boobs.

Lulu made her way through town until reaching the clothing shop. A bell chimed as she entered bringing the attention of a Harpy girl reading a book tending the counter.

"Oh hey Lulu. Never seen you in here before. How's Mista doing? And why is a kids head sticking out of your chest?"

Lulu made her way to the counter. "Hi Vi. I'm here to get some clothes for little Ellen here. She's completely nude. Hehe."

"*Sigh* That not something to laugh about Lulu. And can you please not just say that kind of stuff out loud for everyone to hear," Ellen said in exasperation.

"We do have some children's cloths on sale. And if I can see her body I can make custom cloth's if she needs them."

"I think I'll go with the custom cloths please. Lulu can you please let me go now." Ellen said.

"Oki doki," Lulu replied as she liquified off Ellen reforming a arms length away.

"Ah... ok , I see the issue," Vi said seeing Ellen's four arms, wings, tail, scales and pointed digitigrade legs. "This way."

Vi lead Ellen into a changing room in the back of the store but peeked her head back out of the separating curtains glaring at Lulu who was about to touch a expensive looking dress. "And Lulu. No touching the merchandise. You slime it you buy it."

Lulu retracted her arm with a blank expression on her face.

In the back Vi took Ellen's measurements and looked at the odd body figure she had. "I've never seen a body type like yours. It looks like a jumble of a dragon, a angle, a unicorn and some others."

Ellen held her arms out as she was measured. "Am I really that odd?!"

"Yeah well I my have not seen every race of Monsters or Mamono but your definitely a odd one based on what I know."

Ellen felt as though she needed to confirm something so she asked a particular question. "Would certain people want to enslave and sell me because of that?"

Vi hesitated at that out of nowhere question. "Umm... maybe. Their are some sicko bastards out there," Vi replied with a bit of bitterness in her voice a she opened a closet drawer bringing out a bunch of fabrics of differing colors and types. Placing them on the table she separated them by color. "Ok what cloth and color do you like?"

Ellen inspected the differing cloth making note of the fabrics and their colors. She had blue hair, scales and feathers so something blue maybe or some other color that would go with the blue them she has. Ellen thought it over feeling the differing fabrics and colors until deciding on something blue and black.

"Can I get some blue with black leather padding for my new cloths?"

Vi thought about the color combination and cloth structure that would best fit a customer like Ellen envisioning a front only dress with straps in back maybe the black leather. It would only need to cover the front since the tail and wings would be in the way for normal clothing. But that might be too complicated to put on and take off so something more simple maybe.

Vi snapped her clawed fingers coming up with a dress design and got to work. She got out a pair of oddly shaped gloves that she used to keep her wings folded and feathers from getting in the way as she brought the blue cloth to a table and using a pair of scissors cut proper amounts off the main role of cloth. She began with a blue cloth and cut it into small pieces. Ellen watched in great curiosity as the harpy girl started making the new cloths.

Out in the front of the shop Lulu was getting bored and started bouncing up and down like the reverse of a water droplet landing in water. Up and down she bounced making squishing noises as she bounced up and down with a board expression on her face until she bounced so high she stuck to the ceiling.

A random man walked in quickly making the bell above the door ding. Lulu turned to the man making a disturbing moaning noise as she hung from the ceiling glaring at him with her emotionless face and eyes half open. The guy gulped at Lulu with half scared expression as he mumbled something about coming back later and left passing Anthony as he exited the shop.

"Huh what was that about?" Anthony said blinking at the guy walking away.

Curious he peeked in the clothing shop and recognized Lulu hanging from the ceiling. He decided to go talk with her seeing as he had a message he wanted her to give to Mista.

*Ding* Lulu again turned to the door more out of boredom then anything else recognizing Anthony come in. "Oh it's you. Uuuuh who are you again?" Lulu said absentmindedly tilting her head.

Anthony just about face palmed sighing at the slime girls lack of a good memory.

"I'm Anthony remember. I work at the mine with you and Mista," he said pointing to himself.

Lulu blankly stared at him for a few moments before dropping to the floor with a *splat*. "Antony...? Oh yeah that Anthony. I remember now. So what's ya been up to."

Anthony smiled as he was finely remembered. "Well i'm just on a little break today but since I ran into you I' would like you to tell Mista that I've found a place that sells Blasting gel."

"Oh the stuff that goes boom right."

Anthony sighed at the simplicity of the explanation of it and to the fact that for as long as he has known her Lulu as had something of a split personality based on what she likes. If she was thinking about something that interest's her she can talk and hold a conversation like a normal person but if it's anything else she doesn't care about she's like a absent minded child. Then again she's a slim so most are like that considering they don't have a brain like most living beings.

"Yes that's right. It's used to dig further into the mine and bring out ore and expand the tunnels. Can you tell Mista to meet me in the bar tonight."

"Sure."

"Thanks. And Lulu if I may ask. Why are you in here. Are you buying new cloth's for Mista for her birthday again?"

"Oh no. Me and Mista adopted a little girl and she was naked so i'm here to get her cloth's."

"Oh" Anthony replied in confusion and surprise at the answer he was given. "I guess she's in back with Vi then?"

Lulu nodded. A few moments later Vi and Ellen walked out of the back room in her new cloths. She was wearing a blue triangular cloth over her chest with black leather strips going below the lower arms around the mid body and around her neck. And covering her lower half was a black leather belt and blue skirt that stopped at the middle of the thighs and had slits on the sides.

"Not exactly the most stylish but at least it covers her," Anthony absentmindedly commented.

"Yeah well it's what the customer wanted so sue me," Vi retorted angrily.

Anthony backed off a bit. "Uh sorry."

"Well do you like it Ellen," Lulu asked.

Ellen twisted her upper torso left and right moving her arms up and down, bending over touching her toes and then lifting her legs to the front and sides. Ellen felt flexible, covered and comfortable.

"Yeah it's good. Let's pay miss Vi and get going Lulu. I want to find a job as soon as possible."

Vi smiled as Ellen complimented her work while Anthony rubbed his chin wondering why a kid would want to get a job.

"Ok that will be two pieces of silver and ten coppers please," Vi said getting behind the counter.

"Lulu please pay miss Vi," Ellen said as Lulu stared at her new cloths. "Lulu!"

"Huh? oh! sorry you just looked so cute and pretty in your new cloths I just couldn't help myself but stair."

Lulu snapped out of it and payed Vi with three silver coins that needed to be broken into change in the form of lots of copper coins. Ellen took note of the economy and money used in this world but new she had to learn as much as she can if she was to make use of any knowledge from her universe. Lulu and Ellen walked off to leave as Anthony called out to them.

"Lulu remember to tell Mista to meet with me tonight."

Lulu turned around and waved. "Ok."

As they left Anthony felt like he had to get a handle of this situation or the mine and village would suffer.

"So why did you need to talk with Mista?" Vi asked.

Anthony turned around. "Well I had a job for her that's all and it's kind of important to the mine. We need some more of that blasting gel and the fastest way to get it is to fly over the mountains and forest. We don't need all that much just enough to blast through some large boulders in one tunnel."

"Oh thats all. So where is the source for the gel?" Vi asked.

"Well my normal source has become to dangerous because of the new laws that's been passed in the empire. And anything not made by humans and from vassal nations openly protecting Mamono are being heavily taxed or worse."

Vi wrapped her wings around herself as if feeling a cold wind. "I've heard that some towns with Mamono have been... purged. I hope that kind of stuff doesn't happened to this town.

"Vi did you... survive a purging?"

Vi turned away so he couldn't see her expressen. "Yes. Two years ago. My... my home village on a mountain was burned to the ground."

Anthony didn't know how to react to that so he just didn't respond except with a "Sorry for bringing it up."

* * *

Ellen and Lulu traveled around town talking to shops and business all over but none of them had any opening's for a novice. After hours of searching they decided to take a break at the local town bar. The place was packed with people some militia others travelers and traders just passing through. Everyone was drinking talking, some playing cards or dice games as they relaxed ate and drank. Lulu and Ellen sat at the far left of the bar where Mista usually sit's and ordered some grilled meat and some drinks.

"And what do you want little lady?" A waitress asked.

"A big steak and some beer please," Ellen stated feeling her stomach grumble a little.

"Umm im sorry but we don't sell alcohol to little kids even if your Mamono," The waitress replied keeping a smile on her face.

 _"Crap thats right im in a kids body."_ Ellen thought. "Uh i'll have a milk then... or water if you don't have any."

"Ok that's one large steak and milk. And what's your order Miss Lulu?"

"I'll have the same. But two cups of milk. Oh and put some of that spicy sauce on the steak please."

The waitress wrote the order down and left leaving Ellen and Lulu some time to talk and wait.

"The new cloths really suit you Ellen," a voice said from behind.

Lulu and Ellen turned around to see Fuma and Mista walking up to them.

"Oh hey. What are the two of you doing together?," Lulu said as they sat down on the other side of the table.

"We kind of just ran into each other on the way here," Fuma explained.

"So did the two of you order already?"

"Yes," Ellen answered. "And thanks for complementing my clothes. I was worried that they looked odd... with my body and all." Ellen felt a little self conscious about her odd form now that she knows other's think it's weird.

"It kind of does but that's fine," Fuma stated. "I've seen all kinds of odd creatures out there back when I was a adventurer."

"Don't tell me. You stopped adventuring because you took an arrow to the knee," Ellen asked not being able to stop herself.

Fuma chuckled at the statement. "Hah,ha. Uh no I wasn't injured. I just wanted to settle down in my old age and relaxed for the last few years of my life."

This got Ellen and Lulu perplexed. Fuma looked in her twenties how could she be in her old age?

Fuma read their faces and explained.

"We beast kin live for around sixth years. But like Elves, Demons, Monsters and Manono we don't age like humans do through our lives. We only start to show aging in the last two or so years of our lives and the aging process is very fast. In fact most if not all of our kind actually die from the shock of the rapid aging it'self. At least we would if not for the ritual of last rights. You see most of us Beast kin don't like going out like that because of the pain of the process, so once we start showing sighs of the aging process we go looking for a fight that will kill us or find others of our kind that will give us a warriors death. Even those of us Beast kin that aren't warriors prefer to die that way. But some of us choose to live as long as we can. even though the rapid aging process has the same health problems that humans have when they age only at a much more accelerated rate."

Ellen listened to the explanation thinking it's both cruel and also merciful in a strange way.

At that moment the waitress returned with the food. Mista and Fuma gave their orders while Ellen and Lulu ate their meal.

Ellen suddenly remembered what Antony asked from before and elbowed Lulu. "Huh what is it," Lulu asked as she cut her steak.

"Didn't Antony ask you to tell Mista something."

Lulu stared at Ellen blankly. "Huh umm. Oh yeah! Mista Anthony wanted to talk with you about something tonight here at the bar."

"Did he say what it was about?" Mista asked.

"He said it had to to do with the gel that goes boom," Lulu replied as she swallowed a piece of her steak.

Mista made a knowing "Oh that." as she felt hungry herself and called a waiter over ordering the same as the other two with Fuma.

* * *

At the same time far away in a misty mountain pass.

A column of disciplined soldiers marched on ward, some on horseback most on foot. Their armor of ivory and gold depicting a golden stag and lion on the shoulder plates and chest.

They matched along until stopping at a fork in the road. Two men at the front of the column one a gruff middle aged man with a full beard and a younger man with blond hair sat upon their horses looking at the problem at hand.

"Captain Aster which why should we go. There's no sign to direct us to the next village" the young man asked.

The older man Captain Aster held his hand up to his forehead softly speaking a prayer. He then held his hand out flat as a glowing arrow appeared on it pointing to the left. "This why."

The group changed direction and mad their way down the left pathway.

The young man road alongside his superior felt as though a question needed to be asked. "Sir if I may ask do you have any reservation's about our mission?"

Captain Aster glanced at the young man then back to the road in front. "No Lieutenant William. It's high time we purged all monsters from our lands. The Vekuris empire is the strongest human nation on the continent but those creatures are still everywhere. Because of them the roads and forests have become far too dangerous to expend the cities and towns with out military intervention. And then there are the female humanoid monsters that are even more dangerous lurring men away in unholy unions that have made the birth rate of human children stagnate for decades because man can't resist the seductive charm of those sluts of the demon lord."

"Hmm the demon lord?" William thought aloud looking down at the passing dirt road. "The Demon lord and her vassal states control most if not all of the eastern continent but there are other human kingdoms on the continent that aren't beholden to the Demon lords rule."

"Hmph! those animals should just stay on their side of the sword sea," Said a knight behind Whiliam and the Captain.

"Yeah!. These are our lands granted to our ancestors by lord Enlil and Faynar. The only reason those damned beast bitch's got a foothold on the continent was because the previous few emperor's were weak and opened the borders to their kind."

William staired forward lost in thought as the column of soldiers moved onwards.

 **Chapter End**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

 **Enter the Fractale-verse part 4**

* * *

 **Demon lord's castle.** **Underground chambers**

Reflective water droplets ran down Stalactites in a dark cave falling far below to a pool. Their echos resonated through the rather large cave that served as the private chambers of the heavenly knight of water. One of the demon lords right hands and royal guards and as such is the among the strongest Mamono and Monsters on the planet.

*Drip*

*Drip*

*Drip*

As the small lake rippled and echoed from the water droplet's a hand sized crystal floating near the water's surface glowed making a chime sound as

A slime like tentacle shot out of the water touching the crystal making it change color and the image of Musa appeared in the crystal.

"Hello lady Eurabella. I'm sorry to call you after such a long time but I need advice on a certain matter."

The lake water rippled as a beautifull siren like voice spoke.

"Musa? it's been awhile."

Musa chuckled in the crystal screen. "A few decades since I left the castle. Since then i've settled down. Found a husband and had a few kids. Though they've all left the small town I live in. One of my grand-daughters Lulu is still staying close by. Aaa they grow up so fast."

Hearing the musings of her friend Eurabella rose out of the water revealing her blue slime form and taking a humanoid shape with red tattoo like striations along her left side. "It's nice to hear that. So what's the matter you wanted to talk about? If you haven't contacted me in all this time it must be important? "

Musa hummed on the magic phone line. "It regards a certain Mamono that has recently arrived in my village. She... is unlike any Mamono race I have ever known or encountered."

Eurabella tilted her head thinking. "Interesting. How so?"

Musa continued. "She has a body, scales, horns, claws and tail like a dragon... but the wings of a great eagle or angle along with the horn of a unicorn on her for head. And four arms oddly enough."

Eurabella hummed in deep thought. "That decription! She sounds related to a ancient legend I once read a long time ago. Supposedly the 13th demon lord had great powers of precognition. And once made a prediction of such a Mamono appearing one day."

Musa gasp at the revelation. "The 13th! She was well known for being correct all the time everytime. Even with the predictions regarding natural disasters. She was said to be unbeatable in battle even though she wasn't the strongest Demon lord."

Eruabella chuckled. "Correct however such powers of prophecy are extremely rare even among the gods. And the greatest of her predictions regarded the end times. If I remember the verse correctly. When a great shadow from beyond the sky arrives in our world a war unlike any other will spread across all lands. But a new hope will arrive in a new form unlike all that has come before. It also talk's about the All Mother will being set free. But I don't remember all of the prophecy. It's been along time since I read the book of the final dawn."

"The All Mother set free!" Musa spoke with reverence for the name. "Do you possibly think this girl is the one spoken of in the legend?"

Eruabella crossed her arms. "It's too soon to talk about what if's. I'll do some research. I want you to... aa listen to me trying to order you around. If you could please watch her closely and report if she displays any odd abilities or powers."

"I will. It was nice to talk with you after so long. By." Musa's image disappeared returning the crystal to a dime stone.

Eruabella formed a crystal skeleton in her body for support and stood up on two legs and started walking off through the underground caves. After walking down a stone hallway she reached large common area with many other slimes just hanging around in the room. She entered a small elevator and pushed a upper floor button. The cylinder started levitating upwards quickly reaching a open area as the magic elevator rose up along the side of the demon lord's castle.

The view of the elevator panned outwards revealing a massive obsidian colored tower surrounded by five spiral towers connected by bridges and giant chains all resting on a solid mile wide hexagon stone foundation. The tower stood singular and alone in the middle of a vast open plane of grass and scattered trees with faded volcanic mountain's off in the distance behind the castle and a rather large urban city dozens of miles in front of the castle.

The elevator stopped near the top of the the tower. Eruabella walked out into a large library passing a few two tailed Kitsune who bowed in respect as the heavenly knight passed them by. Walking through the maze of books Eruabella made her way to the restricted section blocked by a large enchanted door. Being a heavenly knight has its perks and the right to access the vault of restricted tomes was one of them.

Eruabella held her hand up opening a black orb in space. A coin of black stone fell out of the pocket dimension used for storage. She placed the coin in a slot on the door and sent a wave of her own magic surging into the door. The solid stone door glowed and shuttered before sliding open letting her enter. Walking further in she reached a glass container labeled 13th Demon lord and Tome of the Final Dawn.

Inside the case was a large and very old book encased in solid light. Placing her hand on the glass she used her magic to undo the stasis spell used to keep old tomes and artifacts from degrading.

The light evaporated into vapor and the cases glass door opened on it's own. Eruabella took the book holding it in front of her self.

"Now then lets reacquaint ourselves shall we. Mister book of prophecies."

* * *

 **Meanwhile back at Lulu and Mista's house.**

A fierce a tornado formed spinning with destructive propose as small rocks, dust and small limbs were pulled into it.

Ellen watched with great interest as the controlled twister drifted side to side as Mista controlled it with her air magic. The tornado traveled in a circle before shrinking and disappearing. Dropping all the debris it had collected.

Ellen clapped her four hands impressed at the display of power and control. "That's impressive how do you control the air like that."

Mista scratched the back of her head thinking. "Well it just comes naturally to me I guess. If you want to know more about magic you should talk to Musa. She taught me everything I know. Back when she was teaching me on how to improve my self she always talked about the world bones and other stuff I barely understood."

"Then can you at least teach me how to fly."

Ellen asked as she unfolded her wings casting a shadow over herself.

Mista broke into a smile. "Oh in that case then I can help you out."

A few moments later they were on top the house wings spread out.

"Now remember to keep your wings fully extended and rotate them as you flap. Twisting downwards as you push down and upwards as you raise them up and move them in a circular motion."

As she explained Mista took a few experimental flaps of her wings rotating her wings as she did. Then she jumped and started flapping rapidly flying over the trees circling around in a wide arc before landing back on the back of the house.

"Like that. Think you can do it kid," Mista spoke with a air of pride.

Ellen took a few steps forward to the edge of the roof and spread her wings out as wide as possible. She flapped her wings rotating them as she did so. She repeated this dozen's of times until she felt comfortable with her wings motions and her level of control over them. The feeling of their movements were different from her arms, legs and tail but after a few minutes of practice Ellen felt used to them like her other body parts.

"Ok looking good." stated Mista watching Ellen closely. "Take a leap and see how far you can fly. There's no easy way to do this so you may as well take the plunge kid. What's the worse that can happen."

Taking in a deep breath Ellen focused on her wings and the wind blowing in her direction over the valley feeling it flow into and around her wings. With leap and a powerful flapping motion she took to the air flapping her wings wildly for a few moment's before falling flat on her face fifty feet from the house.

"Nice try. Now get back up here unless you giving up already?"

 _"What's up with her all of a sudden. Shes enjoying this way to much._ "Ellen thought as she stood back up walking back to the house.

Some time later Musa with a basket in hand made her way up the road leading up to her grand daughters house sighting a winged person in the air circling over the house. "I wonder if that's her."

Moving further up she spotted Mista atop the house watching Ellen circle around in the air. Musa approached the house stopping below Mista.

"Hello Mista. I see your teaching the young one how to fly. But didn't you have a job to do?" Musa stated.

Mista made a startled face realising she's late for the job Anthony had for her. "Crap I need to get going." Mista took to the air zipping passed Ellen stopping a distance above hovering in place. "Sorry Ellen I got too get going by."

Mista flew away as fast as she could quickly disappearing off into the distance. As she flew high over through the valley she spotted a tiny white and golden creature on a high mountain some miles away. The creature drew her attention for a few seconds before she shook her head refocusing on her job.

"Off she goes," Musa said as Ellen landed close by. "Miss Musa. Why are you hear?"

"I wanted to talk with your for a bit. Is that so wrong."

Ellen could sense this slime woman had the innocent and weak looking but powerful and smart underneath thing going on for her as she made that smile.

"What's in the basket," Ellen said as it drew her attention.

"Oh some sandwiches. I figured you would be hungry since my grade daughter and her housemate aren't the best cooks. They always eat in that bar."

Ellen was reminded of her attempt to teach Mista and Lulu how to cook the other day. It resulted in some cooked feathers and slimed food. Not to mention the fire.

Ellen sighed as she remembered the comedic disaster. "Yeah im pretty much the only cook in the house. Those two couldn't cook if their lives depended on it."

Musa giggled. "Haha. My my Lulu never changes." Musa said reaching into the basket bringing out half a sandwich with meat and lettuce visible between the brown bread.

Ellen looked at it a little hesitant as she examined it. Every piece of food Lulu had touched became cotted in a layer of slime or became wet so Ellen was a little bit causes. Seeing the bread was dry and there was no slim leaking off it Ellen took the half sandwich and took a bit. The taste of a thick ham or turkey like meat with mayo and lettuce with some seasoning took over Ellen taste buds. It was simple yet filling at the same time bringing a pleased smile to Ellens mouth as she chewed.

"I'm glad you like it. Shall we go inside and talk," Musa suggested.

Ellen nodded opening the door with one of her lower arms. Musa and Ellen sat at the table sharing the food.

"*Gulp* Ugh miss Musa can I ask you a question. How did you touch the food and not get it wet or slimy like Lulu?"

"Oh that. Though we Slimes start out weak as we grow older we develop greater control over our bodies. In time we can even harden it into a crystal like structure so we can have a full humanoid body or take any form we wish. We slimes are natural shape shifters. We're even able to change our color to look like anything we can imagine. And of course our natural magic element is water. Though monsters can learn other elemental magic types."

Ellen took in the info enjoying the learning experience. "That's interesting. So why have you come here today. I'm the only one here with Lulu and Mista off on their jobs?"

Musa took on a serious facial expression. "I was just wondering little Ellen... or rather miss Ellen. Could you please tell me about where your really from?"

For a moment the two shared a moment of silence staring into each other's eyes.

Ellen smiled taking another sandwich from the basket and taking her time chewing and swallowing a large bit. "*Gulp* Well since you asked nicely. Ellen gave Musa the same explanation she gave Mist and Lulu still omitting any information about the All Mother.

"I see. That is a interesting story. But i'm still curious. How did you get a Mamono body if you were a human before?"

Ellen grabbed another sandwich shoving it into her mouth. "I don't know." she mumbled looking away like she doesn't know anything.

Musa hummed realizing Ellen was being tight lipped about something. But not wanting to force the issue out she stopped asking about that subject.

"So Ellen. Mista was giving you lessons on magic and flying was she not?"

Ellen seeing a opportunity decided to strike while the iron's hot.

"Yeah. I had asked her to teach me about it. Ever since coming here to this world I have been able to... sense this energy that differ's from normal energy like heat and light. It's like a wispy mist that flow's around everything but changes and moves when someone use's magic. At least that's how I see it with my horns," Ellen explained taping the horns along the crown of her head.

Musa glanced at the horns that wrapped along side Ellen's head noticing the tiny pores and overlapping plating. "Interesting. So you can see a energy that you believe is that of magic."

Ellen glanced at Musa contemplating her choice of words. "Im new to this world but could you explain the concept of magic to me."

Musa adopted a playful smile. "If it's a education your looking for why not come to my school. Magic Is one of the things I teach their. Though there aren't many other students."

"I was looking for a job but I do need to learn about this world if I'm going to have a shot at returning back to my own world some day. *Sigh* Ok i'll go to school. But while your here could you give me some lessons on wind magic?"

Musa smiled again. "Sure. Beginner lessons cost 10 silver coins. Intermediate classes are 30. and advanced lessons are 50," she said with a sickly sweet smile.

Ellen's mood deflated at the blatant greed. "Eeeh."

Musa started giggling. "Fufufu. It's a joke. Come now haven't you enjoyed a laugh at someone else's expense."

"*Sigh* Ok haha. Sooo about those lessons."

* * *

 **Forty Nine miles away.**

 **Coastal city of Varuda. Located at the eastern side of** **a inland sea connected to the ocean.**

As she soared through the skies Mista eyed the town Anthony told her about.

"That's it. Just like Anthony described. Never been east before? Wonder what it's like there?" Mista wondered as she tilted to the right diving down wards.

In the middle of a busy town square hundreds of people mostly humans and a few odd Mamono here and there went about their daily lives. Pedestrians and Horse drawn carriage's carrying people, cargo and goods circled about a central water fountain in the center of the plaza. It had a statue of four mermaids each holding pots that pour water from a underground water system.

A teenage lami girl in a dress with a bag full of vegetables around her shoulders and a young 4 year old human boy in a back sling on her back slithered through traffic up to the fountain. She placed a cupped hand into the pool taking a few drinks from the pool. She gave the young boy a hand full as a shadow flew over them. The two looked up seeing a red feathered harpy circling over the plaza.

Mista circled around the busy plaza looking for a landing spot and spotting a lamia and a young boy by the fountain. She dived landing on the fountain rim in front of the two covering their heads as the wind blew at them from the landing. "Um hello I'm new to this city. Can you tell me where a." Mista got out a piece of paper with a name and address on it. "Mack hansons emporium is?"

The lamia girl looked like she knew of it. "Oh that's along the east shopping district by the southern docks. I can show you for 5 silver coins," She replied with a smile holding a hand out.

"I'll pay you two silver and six copper," Mista replied.

The lamia girl pouted in disappointment at the harpy girls intelligence. "Ok two silver but not a copper less. I also know of some good restraints if your hungry from your long flight."

Reacting to the mention of food Mistas stomach growled much to the Lamia girls smiling delight as the young boy giggled.

"Uh well." Mista started holding her grumbling belly. "Since it seems I am in need of food I'll take you up on the offer. But uh I got to get to the Emporium first. Business before pleasure." " _That and Anthony will kill me if I don't bring the blasting gel back_ ," she thought with dredd at messing up.

The Lamia girl grinned as she introduce herself. "Understood. Im Sinithe and this little one is Sam. Say hello Sam."

"Heellooo." Sam said barely understandably as he waved his hand.

Mista smiled extending her winged hand. "Hello Sinithe. Hello Sam. I'm Mista. Nice to meet you."

"Well now that we have our introductions out of the way follow me. I'll take you to Macks place. Follow me."

Hoping down from the fountain's pool wall Mista followed Sinithe and Sam through the plaza. Along the way Mista heard the loud yelling of a man in a white rob's gripping a book in hand as he spouted all kinds of religiously oriented anti Mamono rhetoric as a small crowed gathered around him. Mista sighed as she followed Sinithe down a large side road as carriage's passed by.

With a question hanging in her mind Mista eyed Sam as the boy eyed her back with a finger in his mouth. "Sooo how did a Lamia get a human child on her back?"

Sinithe hummed in retrospect. "Well It's simple really. I needed money and a human family needed a babysitter."

They continued down the street bassing a variety of shops before making a left turn to a large shop set by a small dock area with some boats moored close by.

"This is Macks emporium," Sinithe stated gesturing to the building and then holding moving her hand towards Mista.

Mista looked at the empty hand a few seconds before her brain clicked on.

"Oh uh here."

Mista rummaged through her purse set around her waist getting out the agreed upon money. Placing it in Sinithe's hand.

"Thank you."She said with a smile placing the money into her own purse. "I'll wait out here till you come out."

Mista tilted her head in confusion. "Why not come in. It will be less boring?"

"No no it's ok I can wait out here with Sam."

Humming in discontent and a little confusion Mista gave up and entered the shop. As she entered Mista saw dozens of walls and selves all covered in all kinds of goods ranging from mining equipment to swords, bows and crossbows, clothing small statues of marble or porcelain and even dolls along with other odd nick nacks, and in the back was a large freezer and more selves stuffed with food.

Walking further in she spotted the front counter and a bald middle aged man with glasses leaning on one arm flipping through a book with scowl on his face.

Mista walked up to the man pulling out the order form Anthony gave her. "Hello Im Mista. Im here for a few bags of blasting gel. The order and money are here."

The old mans eyes moved over her then to the paper she was holding out. With a grunt he snached the paper out of Mista's hands looking it over. "Ahh your the one that kid Anthony said would come by." The man stared a hole right through Mista as she sweated bullets for some reason.

"Wait here I'll get the stuff," The man said as he went into the back room.

Mista listened as the sounds of some heavy stuff was moved around. While she was waiting she looked around the front counter's glass cases eyeing a weird child faced doll that creeped her out with it's lifeless eyes that looked like they were staring into her soul.

"Creepy!" She exclaimed as a loud banging noise came from the back room startling her.

Being somewhat concerned for the old man she leaned over trying to get a better look from the counter. Then the old man walked out carrying two one foot by one foot wide and five inches thick box's. Placing them on a weighing platform by the counter he looked at the meter on top of a pole and worked out the proper price.

"That will be a hundred silver coins. Plus tax it's twenty more," the old man shot out stunning Mista at the amount.

"Uhhh," In a somewhat panicked state she looked into her purse for the money coming up with three gold coins Anthony gave her along with her own money. "Is this enough?"

The old man looked the three coin's over for the proper markings and seals making sure they weren't fakes. "Yeah this is enough. Here." Taking the three gold coins he opened the cash register bringing out the proper change in silver coins.

"Thanks for the purchase," the old man said on reflex.

Mista reached over one handing both boxes as the old man watched.

 _"Damn. It always surprises me how strong Mamono are. Even this little girl with her thin arms can lift such heavy boxes so easily. *sigh*"_ He thought as Mista left taking a moment to admire her ass.

As she exited the store Mista looked around catching sight of Sinithe and Sam over by the docks watching the ocean. Sinithe's ears twitched as the store bell rang. "Done already?"

"Yeah." Mista replied as Sinithe and Sam came back over from the docks. "Can you bring me to that restaurant now. I won't be able to get back home on a empty stomach."

"Sure. It also just happens to be the business of Sam's family. Come on follow me."

As she turned around Mista watched the sly Lamie had played her good.

"*Sigh* Oh well may as well go eat."

* * *

 **At the same time.**

 **Varuda City southern gates.**

Captain Aster, Lieutenant William and their contingent of soldiers arrived at the gates leading into the coastal city. Recognizing the emblems on the soldiers flags and armor the city guards on watch became concerned at the arrival of such a number of soldiers from a elite group. One guard officer stepped in front of the contingent of soldiers before they came any further to the gate.

"Im sorry ma lords there is a procedure for allowing such a large numbers of troops into a city. You will have to wait outside until we get the permission of the mayor."

Captain Aster stared down at the man from his horse making a pleased grunt as the lowly guard stood by procedure despite the force arrayed before him. "Very well. We'll stay here for the time being till we can speak with the lord of this city. I suggest you send him a messenger to let him know of our arrival."

Sweating bullets the guard officer called for a messenger as he returned to the gate.

"Brave man to stop us. It would be quit within our rights to kill him should we be so inclined." Lieutenant William said matter factly in a stone cold tone.

Captain Aster chuckled. "Hahaha. That's why I like him. He's got guts. And he's only doing his job. There's no reason for us to be impatient or disrespectful to our fellow man."

Halfway across the city Sinitha lead Mista down a busy street passing mainly restaurants and businesses as the smell of food wafted through the air. Eventually they stopped at a restaurant with a sign shaped like a large fish reading [Grand sea dinner].

"Im back," Sinithe called out as she and Mista entered.

A male waiter in his teens laid two plates of food down in front of two customers before turning to them. "Ahh Sinithe. You get what I asked for?" he asked approaching them.

Sinithe unshouldered the bag of vegetables handing them to the waiter. "Yeah here they are Tom."

Tom the waiter looked them over smiling. Good good. Now how about you get home and clean up a bit. Dads been a little testy lately with the tax hick."

Loud chopping and grumbling noises could be heard in the back kitchen.

Sinithe *sighed* as she looked in that direction. "Oh this girl is Mista," She said gesturing to the harpy. "And she's hungry from a long flight here." Sinithe said leaving weaving between the tables and customers and avoiding bumping into them with her large snake lower half.

Tom turned to Mista. "Well if you got the money we don't care what you are. Unlike some establishments in the city. Please have a seat." He said gesturing to a empty table by the wall.

Taking his word Mista sat down. "Thanks. See yeah later Sinithe."

The Lamia turned. "Your welcome. Just enjoy yourself and buy a lot to eat."

Mista made a fake grin _. "I can't fly if my stomachs overloaded."_ She thought. "So what's on the menu?"

The waiter handed Mista a menu pamflet and stood waiting for the order.

As she looked through the menu Miste saw that they mostly have sea food which isn't all that surprising considering this is a sea port city. "Hmm. I'll have number 4 and 7 please."

"Understood." The waiter replied taking the menu and walking to the kitchen in back.

Tom entered the kitchen placing the bag of vegetables on the middle island while a almost middle aged man cooked food in a few pots and pans closely watching the temperature and time each one was at. "Dad Orders for no.4 and 7."

The chief lowered the temperature of one pot slowly stirring it. "Got it. Was Sinitha in here?"

Tom shrugged remembering how overly focused his dad can be. "Yeah. I told her to take Sam back home and clean up a bit."

"Oh ok." the chief replied starting a new pot of food. Taking the ingredients off the island the cook started chopping them up.

* * *

 **Meanwhile in the city council chambers located in a red brick building at the cities center.**

A man in extravagant red and white clothes sat behind a desk with two other men in similar clothes sitting in chairs in front of it.

"So the Blades have finally come knocking to our little neck of the woods," Said the man behind the desk being the mayor or lord of the city.

"It seams so. So do we let them in or refuse?" stated a thin man in a black suit sitting in the right chair.

"We may be a independent city state but the Vekuris Empire still maintain's the political and military power to make our lives very difficult," stated the portly looking man in the left chair also in a suit.

"Still we all know what it means to let them enter the city." the man in the right chair stated with a uncomfortable tone to his voice.

"Yes we do," the portly man in the left chair stated. "However lord Hamilton we must think about the future of our city first and for-most."

Growling a bit the man in the right chair replied. "I may not like it but the lord Marcus is right. We can't afford to make the empire our enemy. I don't know why or for what purpose the empire has begun this campaign of annihilation against Mamono and monsters but we can at least agree that allowing our city streets to become a slaughter house will affect the human populace negatively."

"Agreed." Said Marus.

"Good. We're all in agreement then," Hamilton said as he taped a crystal on his desk. "Ichinose. You may enter," he spoke into the crystal.

The three men turned to a side door as it opened revealing a young man in his twenties robed in a red japanese yukata with a white sash around the waist and armored bracers on his for legs and arms. He also had a long ponytail extending from the back of his head and two katana like blades at his waist one short and the other long.

The man named Ichinose kneeled before the mayor placing a hand on one knee. "What would you have me do lord Hamilton?"

"Ichinose." Hamilton started. "We have a matter that you would perhaps be able to help with so now may be the perfect opportunity for you to repay my kindness of saving your life."

"What is this task?" the samurai asked.

"Well we have a small army of the empire's Blades waiting outside our city gates. I take it you know what that means don't you," mayor Hamilton said.

Ichinose's face scrunched up in disgust and anger at the mention of the group. "Hai I know of them. They are the monster hunters that the Vekuris Empire has sent out to cleanse the land of all none human races. I do no like them. They are killers soiling their own honor by attacking those who do not walk the path of a warrior."

Mayor hamilton nodded. "Yes. I want you to lead the population of our Mamono citizens out of the city and into the nearby mountains. They should be able to reach the northern sea port and make their way across the sword sea by boat. I'll also hire some mercs and adventures to help you out in case of any monsters or bandits attack while your in transit."

"A good plane mayor Hamilton," said the thin man in the right chair. "We don't have a large population of Mamono in the first place so if we just deport them it should appease the blood thirsty empire."

"I will lead the Mamono people of this city to safety. You have my word," Ichinose replied.

"Good then we have a plane of action to save live's and prevent a pointless slaughter. Lord Marcus, lord Andrew and I will order the city guards to spread the word to gather and evacuate the population of Manomo. Meanwhile I want Ichinose you to coordinate the mercs and adventures as the prepare to the journey."

"Understood. Master Hamilton. But may I suggest gathering the refugees at the gate opposite the blades."

Hamilton nodded. "The blades are at the southern gate so the northern gate should be where we send the Mamono."

* * *

 **Meanwhile back with Mista.**

A fork dropped on a empty plate of finished food while Mista picked at her teeth with a claw.

"Aaa man that hit the spot. I really liked how the vegetables and meat were cooked together in the broth." As Mista mused about the meal Tom walked up to her.

"I take it you had your fill then?" he asked while picking up the plates.

The satisfied harpy smiled grinned, "Yeah it was good. I think i'll bring some of my friends over next time."

Tom smiled. "That's good. We could always use more customers. And before you forget hears the bill."

Mista looked at the small slip of paper taking out the proper payment. "Oh before I forget-" Mista asked.

"Yes?" Tom replied placing the coins into his back pocket.

"I'ed like to see Sinithe before I leave. She showed me around today and I would like to thank her."

"In that case exit the back door and go up the stairs on the right. She works in the our house on the second floor taking care of the chores while also babysitting my little brother Sam while me and dad are working here."

"She said something about that before. If I may ask where's your mother?"

"Umm-"

"Ah! no no forget I asked. It's none of my business anyway. I'll just go see her off."

Mista picked up the boxes leaving out the back door. Quickly seeing the stairs she walked up them to the second floor house above the restaurant. She stopped at the front door taking in a deep breath before knocking.

*KNOCK*KNOCK*

A faint, "Coming" was heard from inside. A few moments later the door opened with Sinithe on the other side. "Mista what are you doing here?"

Mista shrugged smiling. "Hey I couldn't leave without thanking you. I would have been running around most of the day looking for that emporium if it wasn't for your help."

Sinithe was a little surprised at the harpy girls behaviour. "Uh ok. You do know I was just doing that so you would pay me right."

Tilting her head to one side Mista grinned, narrowing her eyes. "Yeah I knew. But your just making a living right. Nothing wrong with that is there."

"Uh... ah... yeah I guess. Your weird you know that."

"At least i'm not a bird brain."

The two broke out laughing at that.

"Aa ha ha" your are weird.

"He he. And your a money grubbing penny pincher."

The two laughed even harder like fast friends.

"Ahaha aaa. Tell you what Mista. Next time your in town stop by the restaurant and say hi. For some reason I like you. And that's saying something since I don't have friends."

"Hey why don't you and I be friends. Since were hitting it off so well." Mista asked as Sam's cries carried from in the house.

Sinithe glanced over her shoulder for a moment before turning back to Mista. "Ah i'd like that. So long as you don't get all that pushy like a friendship nut job."

"I won't don't worry. And next time I'll bring my family. We'll I call them my family but were not related by blood. But we live in the same house."

"So your adopted?" Sinithe asked.

"I was when I was little but now I live in my own house now with a Mamono slime girl and a... odd little Mamono we adopted recently."

Sam cried for food again forcing Sinithe to cut their conversation short.

"Sorry I have too take care of him."

"Oh no biggy. But If you ever want to see me I live in a small mountain town about fifty miles inland through the mountains to the north west direction. It's a distance from moon crescent lake. Or at least that's what I call it because its shaped like a one quarter moon."

"Moon crescent lake. Got it. By."

"By by. See you later."

After saying her goodbys Mista went back down the stairs to the ally way behind the building. She stood on the two boxes twisting and holding the straps tightly in her talons. She then created a pillar of compressed air under her outstretched wings hovering higher and higher until she was hundreds of feet over the city streets.

With a few flaps of her wings she took off with great speed gliding over the city using wind magic to increase the air pressure below her wings granting her more lift so the boxes of blasting gel wouldn't weight her down.

As she flew over the city wall leaving it behind behind her a glimmer of reflected light got her attention. Glancing left she easily spotted a large column of soldiers in white and gold armor. Being a little curious she took a little detour flying high over the group of soldiers as she checked them out. As she watched the soldiers below she noticed the emblem on their standards and armor. A emblem of a golden lion and stag representing the Stag God god of fortune Enlil and the Lion god of war Fayner.

It was the same emblem of the soldiers that destroyed Vi's home town.

 _"It can't be. The blades! I have to warn Sinithe. But the package's. Anthony will kill me if i'm late. Ah what should I do?"_ Mista thought.

As Mista flew over head Lieutenant William sensed her presence. In one smooth motion he unsheathed his blade pointing it at her with unaring precision. In that moment Mista felt killing intent re-angling her body vertically as a silver blade cut her upwards across cheek.

"Gah!"

She fell backwards as the blade followed her downwards cutting a path down through the air at her. For the first time in her life Mista felt afraid for her life and it awoken a survival instinct that made her act without thinking. Swinging her left leg and the box to one side Mista rotated her body in the air while giving a wing magic powered flap of her wings propelling her at near mach 1 velocities instantly launching her hundreds of meters over the forest and away from the extended blade.

"Tsk" William exclaimed as he retracted and reseathed his blade in one smooth motion.

One of the other soldiers noticed that he had used his blade. "Sir William?" he asked looking up at the empty sky then glancing back at his superior. "Was there something in the sky just now."

The Lieutenant grinned half turning back to the soldier as a bang of his hair half covered his face. "It's nothing." He said thinking to himself. " _That one had good instincts. I wonder if i'll have the opportunity to kill her some other time?"_

Mista sweated breathing deeply in a near panic as she flew at high speed over the forest as fast as she could nearing the mountain's . "I... I almost died. What who the hell was that?"

 **Hours later.**

A armored guardsman walked up the stairs to Sinitha's house knocking on the door.

*KNOCK*KNOCK*

A moment later Tom opened the door as Sinithe played with Sam in the main room behind him.

"Yes officer may I help you?"

"Im sorry to disturb you at such a hour but do you have a Mamono lamia residing in your home?"

Tom was somewhat confused but thought it a bad idea to lie as he spotted a crystal of truth around the city guards neck. "Uh... yes we do. She takes care of the house work odd jobs and baby sites my younger brother. Why do you ask?"

The guards man sighed. "Sorry but she will have to leave the city for her own protection."

"What! why?" Tom asked as Sinithe looked in their direction.

Sinithe listened and watched as Tom turned to her with a look of regret and fear on his face. He walked up to her with a serious face that felt like he was staring through her. "Sinithe. You... you have to leave the city. Now."

Some time later Sinitha with a large backpack of supplies moved through the crowded streets exiting the city by the north gate along with many hundreds of other Mamono (nearly a thousand) leaving the city on foot, tail and horseback and carriage. While a few hundred mercs and adventures guarded them. One of which looked like Fuma.

"This is all of them. At least as many that would listen to reason and leave." the beast kin that looked like Fuma said as she approached Ichinose both on horseback.

"Good. We need to make haste and move through the forest and into the mountains before the empire's soldiers catch on to what we're doing." Ichinose stated as he road on wards to the front of the column of refugees exiting the city.

As the refugee convoy along the shadow of a tree outside the gate moved and shifted rising up into a humanoid form robed in dark cloth and leather armor wearing a black featureless mask with only eye holes. "So they flee. Hehe like always," the masked man mumbled to himself as he watched the convoy move out.

The shadow agent sunk back into the shadows returning to his master.

A few moments later the shadow agent emerged from a large rock's shadow behind Captain Aster kneeling as the captain and other soldiers sat around a fire.

"Speak." Aster said sensing the agent.

"My lord it is like you thought. The monsters flee through the other city gate into the forest."

Captain Aster grinned. "Follow them. And when they reach their destination open a gate on your end. We will be their to bring them our mercy."

As Captain Aster said those words the gate officer walked up to him. "Your clear to enter the city ma lord."

"Good about time," the captain stated walking to and mounting his horse.

Giving the order captain Aster and his men moved out entering the city as one group. Then splitting up and spreading through the streets like a colony of ants searching for prey for the colony.

* * *

The sun set with it's waning light turning a amber yellow mixed with crimson red as the minors all left the main entrance returning to their homes and families.

Grarurim Ironbane creaked his neck as he walked to the main office building close by the mines main entrance. Just then A shadow zipped over head catching his attention. It was Mista making a rapid landing close by and nearly crashing. Grarurim scratched his head heading over to her and noticing she had the boxes of explosive gel.

"Hey what ya doing that's stuff is dangerous. One wrong move and kaboom." As the dwarf attempted to chew out Mista he noticed that she wasn't even responding and grabbed her shoulder. "Hay what's with ya?"

As he said that Mista jerked in surprise turning around and grabbed onto him like holding one for dear life which made Grarurim very uncomfortable. "Gah? what are ya doing get off," the dwarf exclaimed at the uncomfortable situation.

Grarurim pushed Mista's face off of him as she collapsed backwards on her but looking like she was about to cry.

"Gah what's going on with you all of a sudden?" he asked.

Mista looked at him with a looked of desperation and ran off on foot or talon. Leaving Grarurim to scratch his head s to what's the matter.

In the office Anthony stood up after completing the last of his paperwork spotting the dwarf outside the window. He walked outside calling to the dwarf who looked oddly confused. "Hey Grarurim anything wrong?" Anthony asked as he spotted the two boxes of explosive gel on the ground.

The dwarf turned to him. "Yeah Mista returned with the gel but she had a odd look to her like she seen..." Grarurim paused as he realised something.

Back at the town bar busy as always Mista barged in bumping into some guys.

"Sorry." She said as she continued onwards into the building looking around for Fuman or any other member of the militia. Instead she spotted Vi drinking a cup of beer at a table in the middle of the room.

She ran over grabbing the table nearly topaling it and scaring Vi half to death.  
"Gha! Mista what the hell scar a person to death will ya."

"Ha ah... Vi!" Mista cried desperately as she hugged her fellow harpy who pushed her way.

"Gah what is with you? " Vi said as the red feathered harpy picked herself off the floor beginning to cry. "Uh hey now no need to cry." Vi said some what desperately as the attention of everyone in the bar was turned at them.

Just then Anthony and Grarurim entered the bar after running at a dead sprint quickly spotting the tearing up harpy sitting on her butt.

"Hay now Mista what's the matter?" Anthony asked as he and Grarurim approached her.

Mista breathed in and out starting to calm down. She stood up and sat in the chair opposite Vi.

"I... I almost died." Everyone was more confused and now worried at what she had to say. "I was flying so high but." Unconsciously Mista felt the scar and dried blood on her cheek." The blade flew at me and... If I were any slower I would have lost my head."

The words sparked a bad memory for Vi who finally took notice of the held scar on Mistas cheek remembering the day her village was attacked and wiped out.

In a flash of memory Vi was back in her village as it burned. Human knights in white armor baring a stang and lion on the chest armor fired enchanted arrows that turned and arced as they struck harpies flying about in the air igniting them into burning char upon impact. Then there was a single man standing in the center of dozens of headless harpy corpses. The man slowly turned his bloody face to Vi sitting like a scared child. The mans golden hair and piercing blue eyes bored a hole into Vi's heart.

Back in reality Vi held her head dropping her glass of beer spilling it on the floor.

"It's him. The sky cutter," Vi had a face of a scared woman as she wrapped wing around herself almost dropping to her knees.

* * *

 **Back at Lulu and Mistas house.**

Ellen with breathed deeply as she eyed her opponent whom she had been sparing with the whole day. Ellen using her lower arms formed a air bullet launching it at Musa who simply morphed her flud like around the attack reforming into a crystal humanoid with blade arms. Musa spun like a bladed top as Ellen brought her large upper arms up blocking the attack as she was sent flying back from the force.

Propping herself up from the impact Ellen took a few deep breaths to rest from the beating she was taking. Looking at her bleeding upper arms Ellen was surprised at the sharpness and flexibility of a slime who supposedly was the weakest of all monsters. Not so in this world.

All though it is true they start out weak but as they age and grow in experience slimes can gain complete control over their bodies allowing them to generate hardened body parts made of a semi flexible diamond like substance forming armor, weapon or a skeleton that can support them in a full humanoid body greatly increasing their combat potential and that's not including the magic enhancements.

The blades that sliced through Ellen's armored scales like butter were a testament to that.

"You have enough? " Musa asked. "It's getting late anyway I should head home. And you."

Having a look at the surrounding area revealed that it had been demolished by the two's day long sparing match leaving craters and broken trees scattered around the area around the front of the log cabin.

"*Sigh* Ok ok I know when i'm beat."Ellen admitted as she sat down legs crossed and felt exhausted even as her wounds quickly closed up from her regeneration ability which was the only reason her whole body wasn't covered in cuts and bruises. "You win. But tomorrow I want a rematch if that's ok."

Musa re-softened her body collapsing into a puddle of goo that reformed into the normal half humanoid shape. " I'll be glad to continue teaching you magic and combat. But we should do it at my school. If you'll attend?"

Ellen looked up as the red and yellow colors painted the sky. "Sure i'll come tomorrow."

At that time Lulu came out of the house. "Supper's ready."

Feeling like she was on empty Ellen rolled onto her belly pushing off the ground standing up and making herself move to the house step by step and cooked meal Lulu somehow made by herself. "Foood." Ellen said passing Lulu.

"Musa if you want you can join us?" Lulu asked.

Musa thought it over. "I suppose I'll join you. But I must head back home after words."

Minutes after the three sat down to eat Mista entered the front door with her head held low looking somewhat melancholy.

"What happened to you?" Ellen asked as Musa and Lulu eyed the dagid looking harpy.

Mista looked up eyes wide. "Oh uh i'm... fine. I'll explain later."

Ellen became suspicious. "No. Something happened while you were on your little errand for Anthony. What was it?"

Mista took in a deep breath and recounted the events of her day.

"Uh that's scary!" Lulu stated with a look of concern on her face.

"Blades huh?," Ellen exclaimed as she clenched her fists so tight her claws dug into her hands. She opened them and watched as her self inflicted wounds quickly closed up.

"This is bad."Musa satiated looking serious. "The blades are a emperial kill squad that goes around wiping out Monsters and Mamono villages around the continent and even attacks those living in human cities and towns. The city of Varuda isn't vary far from this town."

Everyone turned to Musa as she spoke aloud.

"How do you know about them Grandmother?" Lulu asked.

Musa faced her granddaughter with a serious expression on her face. "Well... to put it simply." The three of them leaned in to hear better. "I used to work in the demon lord's castle."

Silence prevailed over the house for a few seconds until. "WHAAAAAT!" was shouted by Lulu and Mista. Ellen looked between all of them feeling completely left out. "What's the demon lord?" Ellen asked getting looks from the other three.

Musa smiled remembering Ellen had only arrived in this world. "Demon lord is more of a title rather then a racial quality or description. But it comes from the fact the demon race used to be the strongest none human race once upon a time after the All Mother was sealed away. After the All Mother was sealed away a long time ago the Demon race. Which not a Mamono race because they have both male and female genders. Tried to dominate the other none human races and for a time they did just that. Centuries passed and then a Mamono of the dragon race lead a rebellion slaying the demon lord at the time and took his title as demon lord. So the one who leads all monster races on the eastern continent is called the demon lord."

Lulu, Ellen and Mista listened intently at the history lesson.

"Why didn't you ever tell me? Does grand pa know? " Lulu asked feeling like her world had just been turned upside down.

"Yes he knows but please don't tell anyone else. It will just stir up trouble if more people found out. And besides im retired from all that. It's why I came to a remote place like this."

"I see." Ellen said. "So these Blades are elite kill squad's sent by the Vekuris Empire to wipe out Monster and Mamono populations. I can imagine a few reason's why they would be given such a order. And their close by meaning our town is in danger!"

Lulu seemed down along with Mista. The two really disliked fighting so the thought of their village being attacked scared them a bit.

"Musa" Ellen said in a resolved tone. "I want. No I request that you please teach me all you about magic."

Musa noticed the eyes of a killer in Ellen's gaze. But also that of resolved determination to protect those she cares about.

"If I do what will you do?" Musa asked.

"Protect everyone. At least as much as I can anyway."

Musa nodded accepting the request. "Ok then. Mista could you fly back to Varuda to scout out what the Blades are up to there."

Mista did a double take. "Eh! what. I barely survive the first time and you want me to go back."

"Not right now. " Musa stated. "Do it in three days so you can rest up. Your not fighting anyway just checking out the situation there."

"I want to go too," Ellen stated.

"I thought you wanted me to Teach you magic?" Musa asked.

"I'll train with you for two day's and then fly with Mista to this Varuda place. Besides I want to learn how to use my wings." Ellen said flexing her wings up and down.

"Ok but after you two get back were resuming your training," Musa replied.

"Ok," Ellen answered.

"Got it," Mista answered.

* * *

 **The next morning. Thirty seven miles north-east of Varuda city. Mamono refugee camp.**

The Mamono refugees camped out by a river resting and preparing for the next leg of their journey. Mamono of at least a dozen differing types including Centaurs, Driders (spider girls) Bunny girls, Lamia, Harpies, a few slimes and even a few lizard girls and one Dryad as well as some of their differing sub species mixed in.

But the odd one out of the entire group was a young noble looking girl in a expensive dress surrounded by four woman attending her. This wouldn't be a odd sight if it weren't fact the four maids serving her had darkened skin and red eyes indicating they were zombies and that the young lady being was a necromancer or a vampire.

"Aaah it's hot today," the loli looking lady Estella exclaimed as two of her handmaidens fanned her while a third held up a large umbrella and the forth massaged her feet.

"If ma-lady wises we may construct a temporary shelter," said the maid rubbing her feet with the number no.1 on her for-head.

"Hmm that would be nice. Do it at once," lady Estella ordered.

Ichinose and the beast kin woman that woman like Fuma walking passed overhearing the conversation and walked up to them.

"That would be inadvisable miss Estella," Ichinose stated stopping in front of the group of woman.

"And why would that be?" Estella asked pouting a little with a look of disappointment.

"Because of two reasons." Ichinose started. "One were leaving in a few hours so it would be a waste of your time. And second it would leave a trail for the empires forces to follow us with.

At the mention of the name other nearby Mamono stopped what they were doing gosping or had faces fear at the mention of the infamous group.

Estella sighed in annoyance and relented. "Very well. If there is anything else mister Ichinose then please inform me or my hand madien's."

"Ichinose stared at the young looking lady pondering a question. "If possible could you tell me now a necromancer was able to live in Varuda city. Last time I checked your kind weren't all that welcome in any civilized place."

Adopting look of disappointment Estella stood up pointing her fan at Ichinose. "You hear me little man I am a member of the Valorze family a very wealthy and well respected bloodline of nobles you hear me. And as for my handmaidens it may be true that they are zombies but they chose to become lesser undead to serve me in eternity."

"In other words your all vain egotistic girls obsessed with eternal beauty," interrupted Ichinose's companion who looks just like Fuma.

"And who might you be," Estella asked in a veiled rage slapping her fan closed in her free hand.

The beast kin girl grinned at he question. "My name is Fuka."

"Fuka huh. I'll remember it." Estella said as the two shot death glares at each other.

"Any way let's get going Fuka. We need to talk about our next destination," Ichinose said. as the two road off returning to their tent while Estella glared at them a bit before sitting back down.

Minutes later Ichinose, Fuka and four others one being a merc captain and another a adventure of the silver rank with their seconds in command stood around the table with a table and map in the small tent.

"This road here go's north to the northern snowy wastes. If we can reach a northern port we can send the refugees over the sword sea," said the merc captain.

"I've been that way before and this time of year with this number of people it will be near impossible for us to get past the frozen wastes let alone fight off the monsters along the way," Said Fuka.

"Well then what do you suggest?" asked the silver ranked adventure.

Fuka looked over the map placing a finger on a small dot resting in the middle of some mountains with the name Ansta on it.

"Where's that?" Ichinose asked.

"That's Ansta. A small town located in the middle of nowhere. My twin sister Fuma is retired there."

"Retired?" asked the merc captain.

"If you want the story ask my sister when we get there," Fuka replied.

"And why are we heading there?" asked the silver ranked adventure.

"Well it's in the middle of a vast forest I know well and far away from most other civilised places so we would have time to restock on supplies and think of our next move. And it's closer than any other town or city," Fuka answered.

The silver ranked adventure stroked his beard thinking. "It would be the logical move. Even though it would be far from any sea port it would be a safe haven till we make a decision one where we're going next from there."

"We were only paid enough to escort the beasty girls a few hundred miles from the city and after that were heading back. The main branch of my merc group is preparing for a big operation in a few years. So big were taking our time preparing for it."

"And what would said operation be?" asked Fuka taking interest.

"Thats a secret. Can't tell ya unless I kill ya afterwords. Unless ya join ma marc group?" the merc captain replied eyeing Fuka.

"Heh. No thanks," Fuka replied with a up turned nose, arms crossed.

"Anyway I agree with Fuka. This village in the middle of the mountains will provide a place for the civilians to decide where they want to go next. All against?" Ichinose asked.

No one raised their hands.

"All for?" her asked again.

Four hands raised in unison.

"Good now well set off again in a few hours," Ichinose said as the meeting was ended.

Fuka walked out of the tent passing a few Driders and a few lamia wrapped up in the trees which was some thing they like doing when out in nature. Fuka continued on her way coming upon a lamia coiled up at the base of a tree who looked like she was about to cry.

"Hey you ok?" Fuka asked.

The Lamia looked at her wiping her tears away. "Im ok. Just didn't want to leave home that's all."

Fuka sat at the base of the tree below the young teen Lamia. "I know how your feeling. I lost my home along time ago too."

Sinithe looked down at the beast kin wondering what she was on about.

"Years ago. Me and my sister Fuma were forced to leave our home when sea raiders attacked us. A bunch of people died but most of them were the raiders. My tribe was really strong but our leaders knew the raiders would come back again and again so we left the islands we called home. We beast kin are natural nomads so we move about from place to place whenever the need arrives.

Fuka sighed remembering the life she had as a young child. "Even so that island was my birth place so it was the only home me and my sister ever knew. It was sad to leave but it was necessary. Otherwise more of our people would have died needlessly."

Sinithe wiped a tear from her eyes starting to relate to Fuka and her story. "What's your sisters name?"

"Fuma."

"Um do you ever feel like ever returning to that island?" Sinithe asked staring at Fuka.

Fuka thought a moment. "Actually me and my sister did return to the island ten years ago. We were traveling around just for fun at the time but it hadn't changed one bit since we left it decade's before. Anyway I should be getting on with my job. Hang in there kid."

Fuka walked off returning to her patrol of the camp leaving Sinithe to think about the story she had told.

Resting her head on the tree branch Sinithe tried relaxing. "Tom. Sam... Mista? I wonder if I'll ever see them again?"

 **Chapter End**


	26. Chapter 26

**This chapter was a little late. Internet died on me *frustrated sigh*.**

 **To readers**

 **If your sick of Ellen in this other world don't worry it will be split up into three parts that will be integrated with the main story later down the line.**

 **In just a few chapters the story will change as Noobzilla will get Ellen out of her current situation and they will start the main phase of the other story Tails of the fractal-verse. at that point I'll focus on it and finish it up in maybe ten or twelve chapters then everything will focus back on Ellen and then the events of Starcraft will begin.**

 **I know all of you reading are sick of this filler stuff but it's set up for the later parts of the story.**

 **And to [LuluViBritania] I know it's something of a scatter shot story.** **But as a explanation I wanted to show how the Terran tech developed over time. And also** **Aliasse and Selvaria are both main** **characters along with a few others but still under Ellen as shes the protagonist of the story.**

 **As to the dimension travel device that sent Ellen into another world it was not warp based tech but just advanched** **interdimensional tech** **and that is why it worked without the warp involved.**

 **Also warning, some gore in this one.**

* * *

 **Enter the Fractal-versePart 5**

 **Chapter 26**

* * *

 **Early morning. Mista, Lulu and Ellen's house.**

Ellen awoke as the early morning light beamed in from the window. Stretching her arms out widely as she yawned in her own bed beside Mistas and Lulu's.

Hoping out of bed she got to her morning ritual of cooking breakfast for her self and the other two. Minutes later she had a few pieces of ham cooking up in a skillet along with some eggs and chopped onions. Ellen took more interest in the stove it'self as she cooked. On the surface it looked like a gas stove but upon closer inspection the inner workings had a red crystal under each hot plate. When the temperature knob was rotated it contacted the crystal causing it to release some fire magic that cooked the food.

Ellen remembered seeing similar crystals in some of the general stores in town. _"They must be magic or something,_ " Ellen thought as she planned on asking Musa about them today.

"*Yawn* Good morning," Mista said as she and Lulu lumbered down the stairs.

The two other tenants of the house took their seats around the table as Ellen moved the ham and eggs and onions to three plates laying a slice of cheese on the ham slice's and eggs before placing some spices on them along with some vegetables on the side with a cup of water beside each plate.

"Thanks for the food" The three said before digging in.

"So Ellen. How do you feel about going to school to day?" asked Mista in a inquisitive tone as she used the knife to cut off a smaller piece of her cheese covered ham and used the fork to put it in her mouth chewing as she smiled from the tasty flavoring.

Ellen swallowed a slice of her own food before responding. "I'm going because I want to learn more about this world and magic. Though the idea of it is kind of interesting to me."

"What were the schools like where your from Ellen?" Lulu asked as she ate.

Ellen thought a moment on how she should respond to that. "I guess their the same as here. Kids go to a building to learn everything they need to learn to be adults and become working members of society. But there are also higher places of learning called high school and beyond that is college where the really smart and skilled people go," Ellen explained as she took a sip of water.

"The only colleges i've heard about are the ones in the high elven city of Luminar," Mista said continuing to eat her meal.

"I've heard that the library in the dragon city is the largest in the world," Lulu stated.

"Yeah,"*chewing noise* "I've heard that too"*chewing noise.* " but it's supposedly really hard to get in there." Mista said chewing her food.

"Manners Mista," Ellen shot the harpy making her swallow.

"The elves and dragon's really do like collecting things. No wonder they have a reputation of hoarding valuables." Lulu said as she finished her meal and downed the rest of her water in one gulp giving a satisfied belch.

Ellen glanched at Lulu looking a little surprised. "Wow! manners.

"Sorry" Lulu replied feeling slity embarssed.

"It's just surprising you would take an interest in that sort of thing considering your preference for sweets and food Lulu!" Ellen said.

Lulu smiled turning to Ellen. "Well there's something about the past and old things that just draw me. I don't know why?"

"Is that way you work at a mine. Wanting to be a archaeologist?" Ellen asked.

"No not really." Mista answered with a bouncy shrug of her slime torso. "The only reason we work at the town mine is because it pay's well."

"A good enough reason I guess!" Ellen said.

"And what does that mean?" Mista replied.

"Nothing. I'm just saying you picked the job that pay's the most because you want the money for your dream journey. Anyway we should all be getting going. You two have work and I have... eh to go to school... again."

The three of them departed the cabin going their separate ways for the day. Mista grabbed Lulu taking to the air as they headed to the mine. Ellen on the other hand was still unsure of her flying abilities. Still she unfolded her wings flexing the ball joints of the wing. After examining her own body in more detail before going to bed last night Ellen realized her wings have ball joints like a shoulder or hip at all the joints instead of a single direction joint like the knee and elbow. This allowed for more flexibility and control and also made up for the fact the wings came off her back instead of the sides of the torso like a bird or harpies.

Still it was difficult to remain in the air for long amounts of time without lots of practice and experience in actually using her wings.

"*Sigh* Ok Ellen you can do this. Even if you don't have your psionic powers. You did it yesterday you can do it today."

Ellen unfolded her wings flapping them experimentally as she bent her legs in a crouch. Then with a powerful leap she jumped twenty feet into the air and at her highest point started flapping raising higher and higher until she cleared the tree tops. As she reached new heights she started gliding forwards for a ways before rotating horizontally and gliding over the forest and before long she was over the town. After awhile she gained a relaxed feel too the act of flying so high up.

Ellen took in the view as the wind blew passed her head making her hair dance in the air. Down below hundreds of people of varying races mostly human but still all living and working together walked about in their daily lives. Ellen wondered if this was a vision of the future she had been trying to create in her own universe. Or is it just a small bit of heaven in this world. Were there places in this world where humans and monsters fought and killed each other?

 _"Had to be,"_ Ellen mentally admitted to herself flying in the direction of the school Musa told her about last night.

After a few minutes of flying around she spotted the building at the edge of town by it's red brick color and long single story shape connecting to two other buildings beside it with a playground in front of them.

Ellen swooped down towards the playground angling herself up at the last minute and slowing down with a few powerful flaps that kicked up a bunch of leaves in the yard. Ellen turned around to the building looking through the side window and seeing a few dozen other kids inside, again mostly human but there were a few Mamono in there as well (mostly young slimes and harpies and a few Beast kin) all along the rear left side of the room with the rest of the seats on the right taken by the humans kids.

Ellen continued observing before spotting Musa and another adult enter the room. They talked a bit before Ellen stepped back from the window and walked around to the buildings entrance entered the building.

The noise of the door opening drew some eyes while the rest of the kids remained focused on there own conversations or on the two teachers at the head of the room. Ellen could feel the eyes following her as she walked passed everyone to Musa and the other teacher by the blackboard.

Though she had never felt the sting of discrimination before Ellen knew that children can be both innocent and cruel as they picked on those weaker or different then themselves. Ellen wondered if any of the kids looking at her thought such thought's.

"Ah Ellen. Im glad your early today," Musa said as she and the other teacher turned to Ellen.

Ellen despite her centuries long life had the jitters maybe because of her new young body. "Uh. Hello miss Musa."

"Miss Marisa this is Ellen. Ellen miss Marisa is the normal class room teacher. I'll be teaching the magic classes later but she will be teaching morning classes."

Ellen blinked at the information. "Oh ok. Glad to meet you miss Marsa," Ellen said turning to the woman.

Miss Marisa smiled back as she stared into Ellen's sapphire blue eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you too Ellen. Please take you seat in the back of class. Miss Musa has prepared a chair and desk for you earlier in the back."

"Thank you miss Musa," Ellen thanked as she turned around and walked back to the last desk in the left side of the room.

Some of the kids watched as Ellen took her seat while others ignored her. Ellen looked about the room as Musa and Marsa continued their conversation a minute more before Musa left and Marsa prepared to start class.

"All right well continue where we left off yesterday with history," Miss Marisa said as she started calling the children's names and had them read out of their books about various historical events that Ellen listened intently to. Most of the lessons were about trade deals and wars that had shaped the political structure of the local regions and nations and included finds by adventure guilds in the so called wild lands which are area to infested with monsters for human habitation. From what Ellen could make out on their history Adventure guilds were created to explore these wild lands hunting monsters and some times trading with the local Mamono tribe's that make their homes in the wild lands. Sometimes killing the less intelligent beast like monsters and selling their body parts off sometimes as unique and exotic food and at other times as rare materials for mages to experiment with. Sometimes powerful monsters have their bodies converted in to armor and even weapons because of the unique properties they poses.

It wasn't all that interesting to a normal person but Ellen was anything but normal. She listened intently to the mention of names and places and any religious information even if it was few and far between.

After a few hours of that the class started doing algebra and math which made Ellen silently sigh leaning backwards with a defeated eye roll. Even after centuries Ellen's worst and most hated subject was math and anything related to it. Luckily the problems were of a low grade and much easier so she could breeze through them without much issue. After another few hours lunch time started and the class recessed to the playground to eat their boxed lunches. Ellen not feeling all that hungry just hang out on the roof laying on her back with her eyes closed.

As Ellen swang her legs forward and back a few other kids that had come outside spotted her.

"Hey is that the new kid?" Ellen heard one kids voice say not at all trying to hide her voice.

"Yeah. She's weird. Just look at those arm's she has four and that horn? Is she a unicorn or a lizard? hehehe"

"Who knows? maybe she's just a freak. You know one of those humauncules things created in a lab by a crazy dark mage or something."

"I heard she's staying with those two living in the house up on the cliff overlooking the village."

"You mean the one where that murder happened?!"

"Yeah. Maybe they seduced the guy that lived there before and manipulated him into putting them in his will and then... ATE HIM."

The other kids jumped in fright at that. Ellen on the other hand rolled her eyes at the childish bad mouthing. But even so Ellen's young body made her feel anger at the children for bad mouthing her adopted parents. But getting used to the youthful emotions she kept her actions from becoming violent. Ellen hopped off the roof gliding down to the rather large playground beside the school building complete with a jungle jim, slides, and swings,and other differing types of playground toy's that could entertain children in between classes.

Ellen landed right in front of the gossiping kids some human other's Mamono.

"You now it's not nice to talk about people behind their backs," Ellen said giving them a good long stare while holding her wings out to look bigger like some predatory animal. "If your got something to say say it to my face."

As this went on a blond haired blue eyed girl with her hair in braided loops on the side of her head and wearing white dress watched Ellen and the other kids.

The kids all looked half frightened as they shared glances between each other avoiding Ellen's stone cold glare.

*Ding*Ding*Ding* the sound of the class bell resounded throughout the playground giving the kids a reason to quickly return to the school house for the next classes.

"Huh? that was easy." Ellen remarked at her non violent victory following the others back into to the school building.

As Ellen walked back into the school house Musa watched from a second floor window. "That was entertaining. Im glad she has self restraint otherwise the magic test may be a problem."

Minutes later everyone was back in class in their desks while miss Marsa was folding papers up. "Ok children your those of you with the ability magic class is starting so please make your way up to the second floor."

One third of the children stood up making their way to the stair's in the hallway to the right of the teachers desk. Ellen stood up joining them. Ellen and ten other students all entered the hallway and proceeded to go up the stairs. As they walked up one of the kids the same blond girl that had watched her in the playground before looked back at Ellen with a curious stare. Ellen shrugged it off noticing the girl wasn't one of the kids bad mouthing her before.

 _"I don't know what's her problem is with me but I should ignore her,"_ Ellen thought as she and the others reached a class room on the second floor. But as soon as she crossed the threshold of the door Ellen and the kids were all transported to a large grassy field in the middle of nowhere with many types and species of flowers surrounding them in patches here and there.

 _"What the hell?"_ Ellen thought trying to wrap her brain around what just happened.

Ellen looked around trying to make sense of the occurrence glancing back the way they had came and finding a building that look's exactly like the school house.

"Ok children gather around for today's lesson." A familiar voice called out.

Ellen turned back to the source of the voice she saw Musa standing some distance away in her half humanoid form as the other kids gathered around her. Ellen walked over as Musa locking eyes with her for a moment before starting class.

"Ok since we have a new classmate today how about a demonstration of combat magic."Musa said. "Lisa. How about you start with some of your magic."

The blond girl that gave Ellen the curious before walked up to Musa and turned facing a large ten foot high rock and started chanting a incantation.

"Oh water spirits head my call cut and split all before me in twane."

As Lisa chanted a deluge of water spiraled up around her and as she ended her chant she pushed her hands forward shooting multiple circles of thin water rotating like buzz saws at the stone. The water rings sliced right through the stone in a x pattern and making the rock collapse into three pieces. Ellen was speechless as Lisa stood there with a smirk of superiority on her face.

"Lisa is as always the best." "Yeah shes the same age as us but shes so much better at magic." "Her chants are shorter than mine that's for sure but still powerful" The other kids all said praising Lisa for her natural aptitude and skill.

While the others marveled over Lisa. Ellen was going over the possibility of adding magic to her swarms list of abilities along with her growing interest in it. That is if she ever finds a way back home that is.

As her thoughts drifted Musa spoke a earth incantation. "Oh earth though you be brought low rias again ever more higher and multiplied."

The earth rumbled and erupted into twenty more stones like the first all lines up. The other kids all went up to their own stone like they had done this before and started speaking there own incantations. Ellen took her time slowly walking over to her stone at the end as she listened to the others train.

"Earth rumble and shake smash apart my target." one kid said sending a wave of jagged rocks surging at his stone target. The rocks erupted up in a forward moving wave that smashed against the granite like stone braking a few pieces off. The boy looked deflated as if expecting better results but still continued.

Ellen walked further down the rows of kids noticing some of the Mamono were not using incantations while others were with mixed results. Ellen then took notice of the next person she passed who was a red headed girl holding bright orange red flames her hands. "Fire fire burn and burn all to ash incinerate." the redhead said as she flung her two fireballs at the stone leaving a scorch mark of smoking stone.

As the kids used magic and their incantations Ellen could feel the surrounding magical energy move and shift around with her sensor horns. The unusual energy permeating the world was responding to their actions thoughts and bodies far more than the actual words. But remembering words and music had a type of power of their own over the minds and hearts of people Ellen started formulating a theory that in this world spoken magic incantations were like a type of placebo effect boosting the mages focus and thoughts regarding a given spell and element.

As Ellen waked further along the line she listened to the kids all speaking their own incantations and use differing magic types ranging from the four basic elements or earth, water, wind and fire to lighting and frost. It seems even kids can use magic of all kinds if they learn these incantations. Ellen reached the end of the line and her target. The imposing ten feet tall gray rock stood in front of Ellen seemingly imposingly indestructible.

 _"Ok... if that little kid can do it so can I,"_ Ellen thought as she looked down at her lower hands. During her rebirth as a Mamono Ellen had chosen a second pair of arms because they specialized in magic control and manipulation while her upper arms were melee weapons. Breathing in Ellen brought her lower arms up to her chest palmes spaced by a foot and started gathering and compressing air into a dense projectile.

Visualising the air molecules compressing and gathered the air became denser and denser until it started bending light creating a semi transparent sphere of the compressed air. Ellen felt it was getting to big and too dangerous as she became afraid for the other kids safety and decided to change targets as her stone was to close. Thinking quickly she re-aimed at a large two story tall tree that also not only over two hundred fifty feet away but also looked like a worthy target.

Guestering both lower arms forwards she launched the air bullet and in less then a second the compressed air projectile impacted the tree in a defining *BOOM* exploding the tree into millions of slivers and fragments leaving a crater behind. The shock wave sent most of the kids reeling back more of fright then injury from the shockwave but otherwise unhurt as the trees leaves fluttered to the ground.

All of the kids including Lisa were agasp the destruction as they picked themselves up off the ground.

As they recovered the other school children were all agasp starring at the destruction the new kid had wrought in her first magic class as the compressed air explosion had not just demolished the trees trunk but also the base of the tree leaving nothing but a crater were the base of the tree had once been.

Lisa was also standing with her mouth a-gap at the demonstration of power. Then she shot Ellen a glare of frustration and jealousy while her clenched hands shook unconsciously feeling embarrassed that the new kid had displayed the same if not more skill in using magic then her who has been practicing magic for years.

Musa made her way over to Ellen placing a hand on her shoulder. "Well it seems we have a natural born genius in our class. But please be more considerate of others and their safety in the future."

Taking message to heart Ellen shook her head yes.

All of a sudden the other kids started flocking around Ellen asking her questions about how she preformed such a high level spell without even using a incantation. Some of the kids said it must be because air is Ellen natural element since she's a Mamono.

"No now everyone lets get back to class." Musa said waving her arms side to side in a gesture to the kids to stop. "Since the combat class is done let's get on to the Alchemy class shall we."

The kids all stopped and followed Musa over to the building that looked like the school house from before.

Inside Ellen saw tables and various types of crystals and materials spread out on the first floor. Musa stood in the head of the room as the other kids each took a counter table in pairs. Ellen looked around for a empty table of her own spotting one with the red headed girl from before.

The red headed human girl glanced at Ellen before quickly returning her gaze to the head of the room. Ellen also glanced at her before focusing on the lesson.

"Now then it's time for more practical magic lessons that are more useful in everyday life," Musa explained for Ellen's benefit. "Today we are continuing the alchemy class for creating a statue of your choosing. Please reference the alchemy books by your tables for the formulas and construction steps but feel free to create your own work of art."

The whole class along with Ellen and the red headed girl took out the books hanging in baskets on the side of each table opening them to a marked page. The ideographs, glyphs words and images in the book were barely understandable to Ellen as she read the book.

"Ugh... shit. What the hell kind of language is this?" Ellen exclaimed not knowing what the hell she was looking at. Some kind of magic science stuff.

The red headed girl looked over at Ellen seeing she had some trouble. "Uh... um this is a diagram of the uh." The shy girl stopped as Ellen looked at her making her become shy and turn away in embarrassment.

 _"Oh she's shy then huh. Great that will make it super easy to communicate with her,"_ Ellen thought sarcastically as she *sighed*. "Hey what's your name?" Ellen asked being as friendly as she could be.

The red head remained turned away as she replied. "Um Rose. Like the flower."

"I see your parents named you after the red rose flower then. Did you know that in the language of flowers that a rose means I love you. I guess you parents wanted you to find someone to love and be loved by maybe." Ellen said.

Rose nodded yes as her face turned a deep red.

"My name is Ellen. Nice to meet you Rose," Ellen said holding her lower left hand out.

Rose slowly turned to Ellen looking her in the face and then to her extended hand before extending her own and shaking.

"Rose are you afraid of me because i'm a Mamono?" Ellen asked.

Rose shrunk a little at that question. "Uh... eh... uh... maybe. Just. A little bit," Rose answered in a weak voice.

Ellen could feel that she was almost terrified half to death from Ellen's form. "Do you hate Manono?" Ellen asked.

Rose quickly glanced at Ellen for a brief second before turning away again and then glancing back again then turning away again. "No no. I don't hate you. I. I just. I can't help but be nervous around... your kind. You hate me now don't you."

Rose looked as though she shrunk deeper in her seat holding the book on Alchemy more closely over her lower face.

"No. I don't. "Ellen replied. "But I would like to get to know you better and maybe be friends."

Rose looked at Ellen as she slimed. "Oh. ok. I would like to be your friend too Ellen."

"Good, Me too," Ellen replied as she took Rose into a full bare hug with her upper arms but was as gentle as she could be.

"Ah!. Ca can you let me down now Ellen. We'er already a little la. Late on the class," Rose stammered out.

"Oh sorry," Ellen said letting Rose down.

Getting back to her class project Ellen Focused back on the block of stone on her table. She visualised the molecules and atoms of the stone as she placed her hands on it. And with a focused mind Ellen sent magic energy into the stone making it pliable like clay and controlled it's shape making it compress and change as it began to reshaped into a pyramid like shape.

After checking the hardness of the newly reshaped stone Ellen started forming looping groves along it's sides that formed into plant vines, flowers and leaves on all four sides. After a few minutes she stopped taking moment to examine her first alchemical transmutation. Ellen felt ecstatic at the new possibilities now laid out for her and felt happy with her first her work of alchemy. Even if it was very simple compared to the other students.

But Ellen could see how this could be useful in everyday life and in certain jobs like blacksmithing or construction work as it makes things a lot easier to repair and build.

After she was done thinking Ellen looked over at Rose's work seeing that she had reshaped her block of stone into a life like statue of muscular man flexing. Every curve and detail was life like. Rose then reshaped the base of her statue into a ribbon covering the man's private bits and buttocks looping over his shoulders.

Ellen sighed realizing she had a long way to go before she could use this for anything useful.

From the head of the class room Musa watched her students closely as they played around restructuring their stone blocks with the magic technique named alchemy. The students were all doing well each forming their own statue with the hard stone into creative and beautiful works of art and their own imagination. Most had a simple humanoid statue while others shaped their stone into a complex geometric structure's of life like statues of animals or even their parents. The most impressive was Lisa's who's statue was a hollow sphere with the outer shell being a complex structure of flowered vines growing between and around hexagons and pentagons with smaller statues inside depicting the gods battling the monsters in the ancient past and the most impressive part of it was that it was colored not by paint but by the molecules shapes and arrangements being just right to refract the light just right creating the illusion of color.

Seeing the incredible level of detail put into it Musa walked from her desk over to Lisa's table giving the detailed work of art a closer look. "My my. Lisa this is a beautiful piece of work you have here. It looks like you are trying to out-do yourself..."Lisa grinned in prideful satisfaction. "Or you may be trying to make sure Ellen doesn't out do you like she did before."

Lisa frowned in anger at the accusation. "Why would I be jealous of that horn head! " She replied pouting with her arms crossed."

In back Ellen stood up with one of her upper arms up. "I have three horne's so it would be tri-horn head. If your going to try and insult someone get it right," Ellen shot back sarcastically making the room burst into child's laughter.

Rose giggled for a fleeting moment before returning to her normal reserved and shy self but kept the smile.

Lisa silently fumed at the back talk the none human gave her holding her arms tighter in embarrassment and a flushed face.

Musa brought her arms up clapping. "Ok ok that's enough." she said calming the students down. "Now I have to say everyone did well in today's class. Even our newest class member Ellen has created a wonderful art piece. All though I would have to give Lisa's work the highest praise for it's complexity and detail. Ellen. Work harder and train in using alchemy when you get back home ok."

"Ok," Ellen replied as she sat back down glancing at her simple little pyramid.

Minutes later during break time. Ellen was sitting on the class buildings back porch looking at the seemingly endless green fields spread out before her. Getting curious about that she walked forwards until reaching a ring of stones. Picking one of the fist sized stone up Ellen chucked it as hard as she could. The rock flew through the air until disappearing mid air as if passing through a invisible barrier. Now even more curious Ellen walked onwards until passing the formless barrier.

Reappearing near the stone rubble used in the offensive magic class was Ellen realised she was in a closed pocket dimension and was instantly reminded of the All Mother and her prison. But this pocket dimension was a far cry from the one the All Mother was trapped in. After her initial surprise Ellen made dash across the field passing a few other students on the way as she returned to the school building looking for Musa.

Musa sat at her desk in her full humanoid form giving the students evaluations on their report cards when the door suddenly opened drawing her attention. "Yes Ellen what is it?"

Ellen walked up to her teachers desk adopting a serious expression. "This is a pocket dimension isn't it!" she stated matter factly staring the slime girl in her placid looking eyes.

"Yes it is. Although not a very large one. I'm not that skilled in such things," Musa confessed.

Ellen thought hard on her next words still not wanting to reveal the fact she has had contact with the All Mother. "Im interested in how such a thing can be created? Isn't it a high level spell or something like that?" she asked.

Musa crossed he legs and placing her hands on top the other on her lap. "It is but the most basic pockit dimension spell is the level three inventory spell. There are books on all kind of magic in the library in the next room."

"Ok thanks," Ellen said as she stormed off to said library.

 _"Hehe. Well she_ _certainly_ _has a hunger for knowledge."_ Musa thought. _"Still I would like her to trust me more and open up. If what Eruabella said was true she may be the only one capable of saving our world from the coming shadow from the sky?._

In the library Ellen walked from book case to book case passing other kids on their own search for knowledge. Going through the books detailing magic she found a few on differing spell and incantation theories and a beginners book called Basic Magic and spells for beginners. Grabbing both she walked back to a empty table by a window where she sat down and started reading holding the first book in her lower arms that were better suited for such delicate work such as handling a book and turning it's pages.

As she read Basic Magic and spells for beginners, Ellen learned that her theory's concerning how magic incantations work was close to the truth. Incantations are not really words of power that call forth magic effects but rather methods of focus that allow mage's to sharpen and reinforce their thoughts and emotions in the tick of the moment creating a powerful effect's. The more meaning a word has to the mage the more influence it will have on their magic. Although monsters can use elemental magic their intuned with.

Mistas aero magic is a example of this as she and other harpies don't have to use incantations for their magic. Instead they just imagine and will the air to do what they want it to do and it obey's without any incantations on their part. Intelligent monsters such as Mamono can learn to use the same magic as humans but it isn't common place.

Ellen read on absorbing the knowledge like a sponge. It was enthralling to her to learn about such things and the time flew by. Reading on Ellen learned about many spells and types of magic as well as theory's as to how they work. The book also seemed to have allusion's to the gods and the third brood of monsters that battled during the wars long ago.

As well as a list of hundreds of spells categorized into differing types such as everyday magic that can do minor tricks such as levitation of heavy objects to changing somethings color and of course reshaping magic that can be used for repairing things or building whatever is desired from the surrounding environment, otherwise called alchemy to things like basic healing magic and even some shapeshifting spells that were related to the spell Biomancy which was related to alchemy but specialized in reshaping living flesh. Surprisingly the description on the history of this type of magic was based in healing magic and not related at all to necromancy even though it could be applied to necromancy if used properly.

Ellen continued reading on learning more on Alchemy which is used mainly to restructure matter and improve it's strength over normal building materials well beyond their normal limits with non magical techniques. And beyond that enchantment magic can be used to infuse a piece of matter with magical effect such as reinforcement or shapeshifting and even elemental spells for automatic defense's in fortresses and the like. The most powerful weapons and armor are also created with a mixture of both alchemy and enchantment magic. It is also used to make stone and metal castles far more resilient and resistant to weather and attacks from both siege weapons and magic.

Ellen was enthralled by the new possibilities opening up to her. It was at that moment's she was determined to learn everything there was to magic which must be the odd energy she can sense permeating the world to how its used by the life forms of this world. Closing the first book Ellen reached for the second when she realised she was alone. Glancing at the clock she noticed the time was 6:00 PM.

"Damn time just flew," Ellen exclaimed as she jumped up returning the book's to their proper place's on the shelf.

Ellen then turned around and left for the door opening it and colliding with Rose knocking her down.

"Ah sorry Rose," Ellen said reaching her hand out to the timid girl sitting on her butt.

Reluctantly the red head extended her hand and was pulled up to her feet.

"Tha... thank you. Uh it's time to go home. Miss Musa asked me to get you before we leave so she can lock this place up."

"Oh ok. Sorry I got kind of distracted by a book I was really into," Ellen said as they walked down the hall. "Hey Rose can I ask you a question?"

Rose hesitated as she breathed in deeply and exhaled. "Yes what s it?"

"Well... why do we have to train with magic in this pocket dimension? Couldn't we just go out into the forest and train?"

Rose looked forwards in thought for a moment. "Well. Miss Musa said it was because it's best to learn magic in a calm and safe environment. Monsters rome around the forests and come close to the town from time to time so for our safety she created this place for us to train in without worrying about monsters attacking because they were attracted by our magic training."

Ellen looked forwards as they passed into the main teaching room continuing on through it to the exit. "Rose? Im a monster. Are you afraid of me?"

Rose froze up at the delicate question as she held both hands up to her chest staring at the dark void between her hands. It was both different and yet similar to the question Ellen had asked before. "Eh... would you hate me if I said yes?"

"No," Ellen replied quickly. "If you afraid of me then I guess I'll have to do my best to make you not afraid of me. So we can become friends. If that's ok with you."

Rose glanced up meeting Ellen's eyes. "Haven't I already say I would your friend?"

Rose slowly extended a hand which Ellen took shaking it gently with a smile.

 _"Man Im really getting into this school kid thing aren't I"_ Ellen thought as she and Rose exited the building.

Upon exiting they reunited with the other kids and Musa.

"Well i'm glad you could joins us," Musa said as she touched the buildings doorway making the doors close and glow from within. Then the doors Ellen and Rose had just exited opened to the school house they first had classes in. The kids all exited the pocket dimension while Musa counted them made sure they were all accounted for.

As she and Rose left through the doorway Ellen turned back to Musa as she closed the door returning it to a normal doorway. "Miss Musa can I asked you another question?"

Miss Musa looked down at the shorter Ellen making a small tilt to her head. "Yes. What is it?"

"Well I was just wondering. Why don't the Mamono and other monsters learn magic more often?"

"Well most Monsters and Mamono are already attuned to one or two element's that suites their race. So most don't view learning how to use magic like humans as necessary especially since Monsters and Mamono are normally far stronger than humans and other races. But there are always those that do see the value in learning new things and expanding their horizons. The current Demon lord Alice is one such person. And as such she has ordered the opening of many magic schools in her realm that are training many of the Mamono there in the use of magic." Musa answered.

"Well at least this Alice is thoughtful enough to see the value in having her people armed with the same powers as her possible enemies," Ellen said as she left.

Musa smiled in agreement. "Yes so am I."

* * *

 **Varuda city eastern seaside housing district.**

A large two story house on a hill overlooking a street facing the ocean was a-buzz with activity as Blades soldiers searched through every room for secret rooms or hiding places that Mamono may be in. As they searched around making a racket a brunette haired young boy in fancy clothing exited the building in frustration.

"Damn those guys don't know when to stop," the young 12 year old exclaimed as he walked down a flight of Z shaped stairs to the street below.

Joining the rest of the passing pedestrians and carriages the boy marched along in a foul mood as the pain of hunger made his belly growl. "Huh? may as well get something to eat," the boy muttered to himself as he walked in the direction of the central plaza.

A few minutes later he arrived at the cities main plaza which was much more empty then normal. No doubt caused by the Blades going about like they owned the place causing trouble. The boy made his way over to a food stand owned by a man Calic whom the boy had purchased food from before.

"Oh master Reinhart. How are you today? asked Calic."

"Im fine. Except for my house being ransacked by those empire dogs. If Varuda wasn't so close to the empire we wouldn't have to debase ourselves playing nice with them. Varuda is a independent city state after all." the boy spoke with pride.

"Yes well i'm just glad all the Mamono left the city before they started turning the place upside down. Otherwise..." Calic said trailing off.

"Yeah, "Reinhart said with a downcast look. "I heard that they take the Mamono from human cities and when their far enough away they massacre them and use earth magic to bury the bodies."

Calic and Reinhart both became quite and uncomfortable looking as a pair of Blades passed by them.

"Anyway what's your order?" Calic asked.

"I'll have two meat and veggie shish kabobs. A drink orange juice and some of those new things from across the sea, you got, what are they called again?"

"Takoyaki," Calic answered as he started fixing the food up in his food cart. "A guy called Ichinose showed me how to make them a while back. Said it was food from his home land in the south."

"Yeah some of those," Rainhart said.

As the minutes passed Rainhart yawned as he watched Calic fix up his food.

"So master Reinhart have you heard anything from your parents?"

The young Reinhart *sighed* "No. Not lately. They're probably off galavanting around in some foreign nation or corner of the world," he said resting his head on his openhand as his meal was finished and layed out for him to eat.

The young boy quickly sat up and started eating is meal finishing in only a few minutes.

"Good as always. Five more servings to go please," Reinhart said as he brought out a fat wallet.

Unbeknownst to both of them a shadow with eyes watched as they went their separate ways. "Now why does a little brate like you need so much food hmm?" te shadow wondered as it followed Reinhart.

Minutes later Reinhart was walking back home which was now empty with the doors open.

"Tch. Those guys don't even know how to close a door," Reinhart said angered at the disrespect the Blades show anyone suspected of seltering Mamono.

Reinhart entered his family house holding onto the cloth bag filled with his take out. Closing the door with his foot the young master of the house walked into the kitchen where he placed the bag down. He then looked about the house checking the first floor then the second making sure the Blades were really gone. He then grabbed the bag of food again and walked to the basement where he used a special gold and bejeweled key he kept in is pocket on the lock. The doors edges flashed for a moment as a type of gate magic was activated.

Opening the door he entered into a lavish room with candle's lit along the wall with a table and two chairs on one side of the room and a large bed on the other. Closing the door Reinhart took the key with him placing it in his pocket but failed to notice the black shadow creeping along the ceiling above. Reinhart then walked further into the room spotting three mouse girl Mamomo in cute maid uniforms laying on the bed sleeping together.

Hearing footsteps they looked up and upon spotting Reinhart they all jumped up shouting. "Master. Master. Master Reinhart your back," they all shouted as they all dog piled on him.

"Ok ok. I missed you too gh." Reinhart said as he held up the bag of take out food.

The mouse girls all grabbed the bag dividing up the food inside equally. Reinhart stood back up as they all started eating like they had been starving.

"Jeez you girls act like you hadn't eaten for a few days."

One of the mouse girls swallowed her mouth full of food and bowed. "Uh sorry master. Were all a little on edge with the blades in the city and I guess we just eat as a way of distracting ourselves," one of the mouse girls said in a cute high pitched voice.

It was then Reinhart noticed the bit marks on the hardwood table and chairs. "You do know that those are really expensive don't you."

The thee mouse girls all shrunk from embarrassment as they continued their stress eating.

"Eh sorry master. We'll pay for the damages," another mouse girl said filling her mouth with Takoyaki balls that pushed out her cheeks like a chipmunk before chewing and swallowing.

Reinhart *sighed* as he patted the second mouse girl on the head. "It's fine. You'er my servants after all. So It's my job to take care of you too."

"Interesting your servants huh!" a muffled man's voice said.

Instantly Reinhart and the mouse girls all went on alert looking for the source of the voice but finding none.

"Ha ha ha ha. Look at you all. So scared. I love the look you cute little monsters make when your afraid!"

*Sherk* A foot long curved serrated blade pierced out of the chest of one of the mouse girls making her yell out in pain and agony and as she dropped her food. "Ahhh! ahhh! eh ha! ahhh!"

Tears welled up in her eyes as the others could only watch in horror as she was raised up by a arm extending from the shadows.

A masked man in a dark cloak stepped out from the shadows as the mouse girl struggled hold on to the blade trying to support herself as it dug into her from her own weight pulling her down onto the serrated edges.

"PLEASE LET HER GO!" shouted Reinhart in desperation as the other two mouse girls hid behind him. "If you want money I can pay you handsomely just please let her go." he shouted desperately.

"It's always amazing the amount of damage these monsters can take before kicking the bucket. We'll it just goes to show you there not human after all." the man said unsympathetically as he watched the mouse girl struggle and cry from the pain. Playfully he waved the blade and the mouse girl stuck on it side to side. Her tears and cries of agony were like music to his ears as he listened with a grin under his mask.

"Ya know I carved a chimara up once. I took my time and made sure she stayed alive for as long as possible. I worked my way up from her feet. Chopping, cutting, and burning to stop the blood Didn't want her to die too soon. Took me hours to get to her head. Left her organs in a sack and just removed everything around them. Bones, skin. arms. legs. She had such a... beautifully expression on her face when she finally died."

Reinhart and the mouse girls were shaken to their bones by the story and sight of their friend being tortured in front of them. The two other mouse girls were on their knees crying as the man flicked his blade down dropping the third mouse girl onto the ground. Reinhart ran to her as the blood pooled out from her wound.

"Why! "Reinhart cried angrily with tears running down his face as he held her blood stained hand. "What did she ever do to you damnet?"

"Ohhhh Nothing really. I'm just following orders. And I just so happen to be a sadist so this kind of job is perfect for me haha," the cloaked man said with a tone of malevolent pride for his work as he took a step forward grabbing the key from out of Reinhart's pocket. "But I am impressed that a kid like you has a pocket dimension key in your possession. Those things are handy for hiding things in plan sight. Just use them like a normal key in any door and poof you got yourself a pocket dimension hiding spot no one but you can get to. Well unless they steal the key from ya or in my case sneak in with ya. But enough about that. I may as well have my fill of fun while I can. It's been a while since I enjoyed myself hehe."

Two hour's later the shadow agent stepped out of the shadow into a hallway of a mansion near the middle of the city. He walked down a hallway as drops of blood dripped from his gloves.

Stopping at a door he knocked three times. "Who is it?" Captain Asters muffled voice responded from the other side. "Its me. Agent 2#"

"Come in," the captain replied.

Upon entering the faces of lord Hamilton and his aids along with Captain Aster and Lieutenant William faced the shadow agent. "I'm just reporting that I've dealt with some... rats ma lord Aster."

Lord Hamilton glanced at the shadow agents belt noticing three hairless tails hanging with bloody stumps. "If that's all you may return to your duties or room for rest," captain Aster stated

The shadow agent bowed before leaving.

He left back through the door closing it as he went uninterested in the politics of the higher ups. "I sure am glad that new emperor got crowned otherwise id still be rotting in that prison for all those murders. What was his name again... Oh yeah Pax."

* * *

 **Mountain pass.**

 **Thirty seven miles north of Varuda city.**

After a hard day's journey the procession of nearly a thousand Mamono refugees had reached a mountain pass with a stone wall on one side and a sheer drop down to the river below. Moving in a orderly and constant pace the Mercs and Adventures all matched along the winding and precarious road.

Riding passed a few Driders Fuka having been in the rear of the column caught up with Ichinose on horseback. "Sir we've been moving since yesterday. Don't you think they need a break?" Fuka asked.

Ichinose glanced around at the different species of Mamono evaluating their condition. "They don't look all that tired. But your right. We would be come all the more vulnerable if the blades attacked when everyone was exhausted from marching for days on end. Bot not here. There should be a better area up a head."

After another hour of riding they reached a flat plane area and Ichinose raised his hand up calling for everyone to stop and rest for a bit. The Lamia laid down on the warm ground sunbathing while the Dryad planted herself amongst them as all enjoyed the suns light. The Driders spun webs amongst the trees that were used to make hameks for hundreds of the other Mamono as everyone rested as a gentle breeze blew through the mountain pass.

As everyone settled in Fuka sat down beside Ichinose and two adventures the four of them eating their meals of dried jerky, bread and water from their canteens. Some used magic to gather water from the atmosphere to refill their canteens while others lit camp fires with magic to cook up some food.

Fuka bit into a strip of jerky chewing happley as the meat's smoky taste filled her taste buds with delite. Shallowing she turned to Ichinose as he ate a sandwich of two slices of bread, a few slices of meat and lettuce. "Hey Ichinose can you tell us a bit about yourself? I mean I've heard about your skill with a blade but nothing about your past?"

Ichinose finished his sandwich before giving Fuka a stoic glare. "It's not all that interesting really. I just happened to be a for more emperor who lost the battle for succession in my home land."

"A Emperor! Now I want to know more," A female adventure said as curiosity over flowed in her tone of voice.

"Yeah you got to explain how you wound up in Varuda," saida male merc sitting behind them who had been listening in.

"Oh oh. A emperor. Tell us more," Fuka stated looking more cat like as she stare fiercely into Ichinose's eyes.

Sighing Ichinose started to regretting telling them anything but seeing as there may be a riot on hi hands he decided to give the people what they want. "Well it all started ten years ago when my father died under... less than normal circumstances."

"After that me and my younger brother and sister were called to the funeral to undergo the rights of ascension to determine which of us would succeed our father as emperor."

"Me and my younger siblings attended the rights of ascension to determine which of us would be the next ruler of the nation. I won the trials of course and ascended the throne. Though to be honest my sister didn't want to be empress but being a dutiful daughter she put her best effort into it."

"What were these trials?" Fuka asked with a raised hand.

"Only the royal family is allowed to know that, so don't ask again. Moving on my younger brother on the other hand felt like he had been cheated and deserves the throne despite being deemed unworthy. What happened after word was a quick break in our relationship as he secluded himself away and started secretly making alliances with foreign powers and neighboring nations forming a group of allies that would benefit to having him on the throne. A few years later a bloody civil war began between my brother and myself. Luckley my sister had left to explore the graterworld. Something that interested her far more the our nation."

Ichinose sighed looking up into the deep blue sky remembering all the friends and servants that died for him. "The war only lasted for a year and took the lives of twenty nine thousand. But I was winning. At least I thought I was. But then during a naval invasion of my brothers final castle by the sea a high mag or even more then one used the high class spell Raising Ocean. All at once the once calm sea became a raging torrent of whirlpools raising water spouts(water tornados) and waves that crashed my fleet of two hundred ships to pieces against each other and the waves and land.

"Damn a Rising ocean spell!"a adventure said. "Thats class 10 on the spell power level I think."

"No you wrong. It's class 12. Raising sea a smaller scale version is class 10," a merc corrected.

"I don't know how many days had passed but I awoke on a small nearly destroyed boat with two other survivors. They told me that I had lost consciousness when a wave threw me against a pilar in my ship. The admiral of my fleet had me taken to the inside of the ship but my capital ship was cut in two by a slicing wave of water and sunk. The same two men then took me to a smaller survival boat and held on while the storm of water raged around us."

Ichinose then adopted a remorseful expression filled with self loathing and regret.

"We were adrift for weeks with no idea where we were and no fresh water or food except for the fish we could catch. But that didn't last and were were forced too..."

"Eat each other," Estella cut in with a playful and malicious smile as she and her attendants sat on a blanket nearby. Much to the disgust of everyone else.

"Agh you didn't really?..." Fuka asked as Ichinose corrected the theory.

"NO. But the other two men. My loyal servants sliced off their fingers drawing their own blood to attract sharks and other predatory sea life. We ate any that came to the boat searching for a meal. But that only lasted for a week before the two of them died of blood loss."

"Damn!" said someone nearby.

"After that I subsited on any fish I could find and a few days after that a ship passed into view. I thought it was a mirage at first but after the ship came closer I realised it was real. I yelled and screamed all I could but my throat was dry and I nearly lost my voice. But luckley by then they had seen me. The next thing I knew I was being treated by the boats doctor and was nursed back to health for the next few days. If I wasn't eating I was sleeping and after a few days of recovering I met the man who owned the boat."

"Let me guess," Fuka said with a sly grin. "It was Lord Hamilton lord of Varuda city."

Ichinose nodded. "Yes. He had been on a vacation when our path's crossed and he saved my life. And as my honor demands my life was his. That was a year and a half ago."

"A interesting story fraught with tragedy and peril. " Estella stated as she took a sip of wine. "But I wonder. Does the out cast emperor still want his throne back or has he resigned himself to being commoner I wonder?"

"Hey that's going to far Fang face!" Fuka shot back.

Estelle shrugged guestering for one of her maids to refill her glass. "I was just wondering."

"I wonder some times myself," Ichinose said his head hung low. "Perhaps I do want to get my throne back. And perhaps I was a unworthy ruler if I was defeated in such a way. Maybe I lost when I failed to reconcile with my brother. There are so many questions that run through my head about how my nation was lost. I've never even searched out information about what's happening in my nation or how my people are doing."

"You don't even know what's going on in your own nation!" Estella shouted jumping up from her blanket. triggered. "Being sad and depressed from losing I can understand. Being isolated and not being able to reconnect with your nation I can understand. But if you just gave up because you lost one little battle. THAT I can not accept. Maybe your right in thinking your unworthy to lead your nation if you give up so easily."

Estellas words cut deeper than anything Ichinose had ever felt before making him ball his fists so tightly he bleed from his nails cutting into his own palmes. "Yeah. Maybe your right..."

Estella stared at the crestfallen for more emperor as he stood up and looked at here. "But still. If I had the power. If I had the soldiers. I would take back my nation."

Ichinose's fists relaxed as he waved them out and down to his side's. "But. I'm just one man. Without money. Or a army or even allies. So little miss know it all what should I do huh?"

Estella grinned. "Well. Since you've wasted one and a half years being depressed amount it maybe you should start by thinking about what you need to do. And after that I would suggest making lots of money as quickly as you can and finding soldiers that will fight for you like these fine upstanding men and women here."

For a moment Ichinose stared at Estella, then he looked backup to the cloudless sky. "Haha... Maybe your right. I think i've sat around long enough."

A hour of rest passed and the refugees resumed their trek through the mountains and to the next village further north. Little did Ichinose, Estella, Reinhart, Lulu, Mista Ellen, Rose, Lisa and Sinithe know that a meeting of fate and tragedy was about to occur. A converging of their separate destinies that would leave all of them changed forever.

Some more so than others.

As the Refugees marched onwards the shadow agent continued watching them from the shadows. Estella road on her horse glancing to her left for a split second making a displeased frown _. "I can sense someone using the shadows to follow us. This is not good. It must be a shadow agent of the Vekuris Empire. The only question is how do I deal with them. Don't want the rat getting away."_

* * *

 **Chapter End**


	27. Chapter 27

**Note to Readers**

 **To explain why I started this second part to my fanfic with the POV on the Terrans and the other arc on Remnant is because they served as setup for future chapters and the events of StarCraft, Halo and beyond. And as a explanation for what happened to Earth and humanity in the wake of Ellen's actions in the early twenty first century and how they affected the past of Remnant and it's eventual future.**

 **After this arc there will be a short one on Remnant before the story refocuses back on Ellen and her swarm. It will be a short arc with just two or three chapters MAYBE. It will have two parts and shouldn't be too long.**

 **Also Ellen and her swarm with other main characters will be traveling to other universes across the Fractal-verse much later.** **And yes Ellen will be revisiting this Fantasy universe based on the CYOA [Be the monster] later on and will be bringing her swarm or at least a fragment of it with her then with a certain essence loving primal Zerg.**

 **As a reminder I don't own the rights to Starcraft, Halo, RWBY, Any Gundam series, Devil may cry or Any CYOA I've used in this story. And speaking of which this universe [In My Story] is apart of another CYOA named [Grand Hunt CYOA]. The reason is the lore and stories of both just go to gather.**

 **Look for them and you'll understand why.**

 **The chapter after this one will be the last in this ARC as Ellen will be meeting Noobzilla from my other story afterwards. But I won't be delaying the main story. As per the rules of the Fractale-verse time is relative between dimensions so I'll be continuing the main story as normal while also completing the second story [Tails of the Fractale-verse] which will explain what happened to Ellen when she was traveling around with Noobzilla across dimensions. So go read it if you want to learn what happens in their travels.**

 **And just If any of you reading are wondering Noobzilla will play a major role at a key moment in the future of the story when Ellen confronts A'mon during Brood war.**

* * *

 **Chapter 27**

 **Enter the Fractal-verse part 6**

* * *

Sun light beamed in through the window in the early morning of a new day started prompting Lisa to open her eyes as she lay in bed. Sitting up in her nightgown she looked out the window.

 _"Another day,"_ she thought as she got up.

Minutes later she had put on a yellow sundress before leaving her room. Walking down the stairs from the second story she heard a voice.

"Good morning Lisa," Lena said as she greeted her granddaughter at the bottom of the stairs wearing a yellow dress with a work apron over it.

Lisa turned around to her elderly grandmother and guardian. "Morning grandma. Can I help out with opening the shop this morning?"

"Sure since you don't have school today. Why don't you held me open the store since it's your day off from school today,"

Lisa with a smile followed her elderly grandma down the hallway into the candy shop.

"Hear Lisa could you be a dear and unlock the front door and flip the front sign to over," Lena asked handing her grand daughter the store key.

"Sure," Lisa replied happelly as she took the key and jogged over to the front door unlocking it and flipped the closed sign over to it's open side facing outwards.

Meanwhile Lena started moving some boxes of unopened candy from behind the bottom shelf of the enclosed counter area and turned around stopping as a jolt of pain shot up her back forcing her to take a deep breath and put the box down before rubbing her lower back as the pain slowly faded.

Lisa saw this and ran over to the counter. "You ok grandma Lena?"

Lena turned to Lisa with a smile. "Oh i'm ok dear. Just my old age catching up with me. No need to worry," she replied with a smile.

Lena then brought out a glass container from the box. It was filled with yellow balls labeled lemon gum. With a huff she lifted it up onto the top of the counter opening the red screw off top and sampling one piece herself before handing Lisa one as well. One of the perks of owner your own store.

Lena then Sat down in the chair behind the cash register while Lisa went around it joining her.

Both of them took their time savoring the distinctive sour taste of lemon and the chewiness of the soft candy.

"Dear do you want me to continue reading that story to you,"

"Uhmm uhmm," Lisa replied still sucking on her sour candy.

Lena reached into a drawer in the front counter and pulled out a book, opening it's pages she started reading allowed to Lisa.

The story was about twin prince's that fell in love with the same noblewoman who was secretly a vampire who had a vendetta against the two princes family from long ago when the old king in his youth killed her husband but she works her plan she unknowingly falls in love with one of the princes but is unable to tell them apart without sucking their blood but if she does that then they will be her slaves which was her original plan but because she loves one of them she doesn't want to take their free will which leads to a lot of drama.

The story is much like a cross between, Dracula, Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet combined.

A hour later the front door opened hitting a bell over the door making a chiming bell noise and prompting Lena and LIsa to look up seeing Lulu, Mista and Ellen walking in. Lisa instantly crouched down behind the counter not wanting Ellen to know shes poor and a orphan.

"Uh." Lena said as she watched Lisa duck behind the counter before turning to her repeat costumers. "Good morning," Lena said with a smile.

"Good morning." the three customers replied as they looked about for their favorite candy.

Lulu looked at the sweet hard candy while Mista eyed the mint bits in their glass container.

Ellen had already found her candy of choice as she pulled out a hand-full of mint fudge bits.

"Having something new to day are we little Ellen," Lena asked with a grin as she placed the book down making sure the bookmark kept her place before ringing the three orders up and giving out the change.

"Uh huh," Ellen replied as she popped a candy into mouth. "So Lisa why are you in here?"

Behind the counter Lisa was startled and surprised by Ellen knowing she was here as she hand ducked behind the counter before Ellen had entered the store.

"Eh! how did you know!" Lisa exclaimed as she stood up showing only her shoulders and head over the high counter.

"I could smell ya. And magic users tend to give off a certain scent based on their power levels. I learned that in class the other day." Ellen explained.

"Huh? So so I smell," Lisa said as her face turned red from embarrassment.

"My horns," Ellen stated as she pointed to the pair of hornes running along the crown of her skull backwards. "Can sense magic energy and stuff. I only recently understood I could detect emotions and power levels as well, Well it's really the magic particles in the air reacting to people and being left with a imprint of their emotions."

"That can't be true your making that up," Lisa shot back seemingly angered and frustrated and disbelieving.

"Actually it's true Lisa," Lena stated.

Lisa surprised turned to her grandma. "What really?!"

Nodding her head Lena explained. "Well you see my dear strong emotions being left behind after people die is how ghosts and other apparitions are born. But if a priest or other white magic users can purify the area of the tainted magic the lingering ghosts will be able to pass on to the next world or so they say."

"Woa!" was the only response Lisa gave as surprised by her grandmothers knowledge.

"Wow!" Lulu replied half heartedly not really caring about something she can't eat popping another candy in her mouth.

"Well see you later miss Lena. Thanks for the sweets as always," Mista said as they left out the door making the bell ring again.

* * *

Across town in the clothing shop Vi placed a pair of new cloths on a hanging rack before staring off into space. Suddenly the front door opened making her jump raising her shoulders and making her feathers stand on end for a moment before she looked over seeing Anthony was at the front of her store.

Breathing a sigh of relief Vi walked over to him.

"Good morning, Do you have another order of worker cloths or rope for the mine?" She asked as Anthony just gave her a saddened expression as a reply. "What?" she said realizing something was off.

"Vi are you really ok. Ever since Mista said these Blades guys were in Varuda you've been on edge. I've kept my distance because I didn't want to force you to say anything but I can tell it really bothers you. So if you want to You can explain it to me."

Vi dropped her head staring down at her talons as Anthony patiently waited. After a awkward minute Vi looked him in the eyes. "Well you know I and some of the other Harpies in the village are refugees of a attack by the Blades right."

Anthony nodded.

"Well... i'm just worried that they'll come here."

Anthony couldn't find the words to comfort the pain and fear in Vi's heart. He couldn't relate to the kind of fear and apprehension that she was feeling. But he could at least be there for her like when he helped her settle into the village and start up her shop. "Hey If those blockheads want to come here and mess with my sweet little Vi then they'll have to deal with me," Anthony proclaimed guestering his fist up.

Vi looked surprised as her eyes started to water a little then she leveled her head smiling. "Idiot!" she said turning around to keep him from seeing her cry.

"Hey" Anthony said placing a hand on Vi's shoulder. "We've been friends for a while now havent we?"

"Yeah," Vi responded awkwardly.

"So friends take care of friends got it," Anthony said.

Vi sighed as she turned around looking Anthony in the eyes. "You and I both know that you just want to get in my bed."

Taken aback Anthony adopted a flushed and awkward expression. "Uh umm It's not like that really!"

Vi started to laugh as she held her belly from the pure enjoyment she was getting from seeing Anthony embarrassed and red faced.

Giving a sigh Anthony rubbed the back of his head. "Oh ha ha you got me. But seriously Vi."

Vi stopped, looking up to Anthony making a serious face as the two stared into each others eyes.

"I have feelings for you... you may be a Harpy but that doesn't matter to me," Anthony said.

"Oh come now I know you like some of the other human women in town."Vi said with a neutral expression on her face. "And besides you know I could never give you a son let alone a human child." Vi said changing to a depressed expression. "It's not right that I take that from you. You deserve a normal family. Not a monster wife and her kids."

Anthony grabbed both Vi's shoulders forcing her to look him in the eyes with only a few inches between them. The proximity made Vi blush. "Hey I don't care about that. Your the one I care fore."

Vi turned her head facing to her right. "I know you and that teacher miss Marsa hang out from time to time you should just marry her."

"Miss Marsa and I maybe dating but that's because the two of us are freaks," Anthony said making Vi develop a confused expression.

"Huh?" she said.

"Well to be honest Miss Marsa is also dating another person. You see she's apart of a group of women that are trying to adapt to the whole Mamono taking all the human men problem. Their a small group now mainly based on the eastern continent but their growing in popularity and have even breached off into the western continent a little."

"Your going to have to explain it to me?" Vi said with a look of utter confusion on her face.

"Well to put things into simple terms. Their group believes that the simplest solution to ending conflict between Mamono other races and Humans which is mainly based on all the men being taken by Mamono is to simply to share."

"In other words polygamy." Vi said with a unamused face.

"Uh yes in other words if there's not enough men to go around women of all races should all share. At least that's how it's supposed to be anyway," Anthony explained embarrassingly as he noticed Vi's less than pleased expression. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh nothing," she said keeping her unamused face on as she looked left sighing. _"Really the key to world peace is harems. *SIGH* men!"_ Vi thought recomposing herself and taking in a deep breath. I don't know what to think of that way of thinking really. A lot of women are greedy when it comes to their men."

"I know," Anthony replied. "And I know it's not the most popular of solutions but it's a step in the right direction. I hope."

Now completely recharged and in a better mood Vi smiled laughing to herself of the absurdity of the concept of this plan. "Hahahaha aaaa. Thanks for that Anthony." Vi said placing a wing on his shoulder patting it. "I needed that laugh. Oh by the way, " looking over at the clock." Isn't it time for you to get to work."

Anthony glanced over at the clock realizing that it's passed his work duty at the mine. "Oh crap I need to get back. Grarurim's blasting that shaft today." He said almost running out the door. Then a moment later he ran back in kissing Vi on the cheek. "See you later," he said running off again leaving her with a surprised and flushed face.

* * *

Meanwhile at the mine Dwarven mining chief Grarurim Ironbane watched as two other miners in work overalls carried the box's of blasting gel onto a platform with handrails that hovering over a deep shaft.

"Careful with that stuff. One good strong smack or spark and we're all up in smoke," the Dwarf grumbled in a deep voice as the two miners set the boxes down in the middle of the platform.

"And tell me boss what's going to make a spark in here?" asked miner A.

"Shut ya yaper and hold onto tha safety rails," Grarurim shouted before he hit the control switch that controlled the platform.

A few moments after the two miners grabbed the safety rails the platform began its slow descent into the lower mine. The walls moved upwards at a staggering rate as the platform increased in speed making air rush by making Grarurim's beard flop up over his face which he stopped by putting a hand over it while holding on to the safety rail with his other hand but not before the two miners had a small chuckle at his expense.

After a few minutes the platform slowed and stopped at the bottom of the shaft.

"Ok let's get moving," Grarurim said ushered the two miners down the tunnel a few meters where a mining cart rested on a set of rail tracks. Loading the boxes into the cart and hopping in themselves the three of them set in for rough ride as Grarurim pulled the break lever sending the cart rolling down the track. Air rushed passed them as the cart flew down the tunnel a ways before Grarurim pulled gently back on the brake lever slowing them down before stopping completely at a dead end.

The two humans and Dwarf unloaded the box's leaving one behind and taking one before proceeding to walk down the illuminated tunnel of gray stone and brown dirt. After a few dozen meters it changed into a smooth glistening obsidian black tunnel of smooth stone. Traveling further in they reached a wall of the pitch black obsidian stone with no discernible openings or cracks of any kind on its surface. The two miners then used crowbars to open one of the boxes showing twenty five, five inch tubes of red gel inside.

"Ok here's the hard part, slowly and I mean slowly place the gel tubes on the corners of the wall," Grarurim said sternly as he watched the other two work.

Gently and with slow deliberate movements the two miners stuck the sticky gel packs along the corners of the wall. After that was done Grarurim told the two men to get back and he stepped up to the wall and used his alchemy to place granite stone covers over the gel packs to help focus the blasts.

He then put the final touches on by enchanting a fire ignition crest on a rock he had. It was shaped like a circle with a flame shape inside and placed the stone onto the middle of the wall. Then using alchemy again he adhered the stone onto the center of the black wall and made groove's that linked it with all the red gel packs on the stone. After that the dwarf taped the fire crest making the outer line slowly start to disappear counter clock-wise like a timer.

The three men picked up the boxes and equipment before running back out the tunnel of black stone quickly reaching the exit and ducking behind the steel mining cart. A few moments passed and then the fire enchantment activated and in less then a split second streams of fire were sent through the grooves to the gel packs making a loud *KA-BOOM*.

The ear splitting noise rushed through the mine tunnels followed by a cloud of thick dust that rushed out of the obsidian tunnel. Moments later Grarurim and the two miners stood back up looking into the dust filled tunnel.

"All right don't need that" Grarurim said as he said a earth magic chant and pulled the dust cloud into a basket ball sized sphere of compressed earth in his hands and dropped it on the ground and rolled to one-side away from the mining carts railtrack. "Come on" he said leading ahead through the tunnel.

As they walked back through the tunnel they noticed it was different then before as the odisdien walls now reflected a faint shimmering light of dark purple laced with pink particles. As they reached the spot they placed the explosive gel Grarurim's eyes went wide as he saw that the black ten foot thick wall now had a large hole in it that lead into a large cave beyond.

"Finally," the dwarf said before pointing back to miner A. "You go back up to the surface and let Anthony and Gerald know that we've gotten through."

The man replied with a yes sir before turning around and running back the other way.

"So what is this place?" the other miner asked staring into the shining opening.

Grarurim chuckled placing his hands on his waist . "Hehe. It's only the treasure trove of the century kid," turning back to the miner B he explained. "You see kid there are these things called world bones that show up all over in the ancient legends of our world. Most relate them to magic and power and others to riches. That black obsidian stone is a rare material that resists and absorbs all magic so earth magic or Alchemy wont work on clearing it."

"Which is why we needed the explosive gel," miner B said.

"Exactly." Grarurim confirmed. "And as the legends go in the world bones are the source of all magical power. But there is also something else that it readily found along with that obsidian stone." Grarurim trailed off as he walked into edge of the tunnel followed by the miner as they both looked out into the deep chasm below.

Inside they found it to be a massive geode a few miles across and completely covered wall to wall with dark purple crystal shards the size of a man if not bigger that all glowing with a inner pink light and gave off particles of the same color that filled the whole cave.

"Wow!" the miner said in astonishment hanging his mouth open at the sight.

"Magicite crystals," Grarurim stated. "They sell for almost a hundred times their weight in gold all over the world. Elf's Humans, Demons, Mamono and every other race and nation use them to power their floating cities, city barriers and all magitech. And normal enchanted crystals like the ones in your stove and freezer don't even compare to these things in terms of power."

The miner closed his mouth before turning over to Grarurim. "So does this mean our town in rich?"

Grarurim looked at the man like he had said the most obvious and stupid thing in the world. "Yes."

Both men broke into a happy dance and started chanting "We're rich we're rich we're rich," over and over again as their voices echoed through the cave.

Meanwhile on the surface Miner A had reached the nine entrance and made a right turn quickly making his way to the main office where he say Anthony just sit down at his desk.

"Sir," Miner A said as he made his way over.

Anthony turned to the man. "Yes?"

"Sir mine chief Grarurim told me to report that we've broken through sir" Minar A reported.

Anthony smiled as he thought. "Now _our town's prosperity will greatly increase. But we can't get complacent as the Vekuris Empire will no doubt try to take the mine for themselves or try any dirty trick to get control of it. It would help if the lord of Varuda would help us. But with the blades there it may be a lost cause. At least we should hire a lot of mercs to guard the town. We can currently afford it now. But selling Magicite crystals on the open market isn't something you do, at least not without lost of unsavory and dangerous people noticing."_

"Sir?" Minar A asked snapping Anthony back to reality.

"Return to Grarurim and help with anything he tells you. I'll inform the village chief myself," Anthony said before he walked out of the office.

In just a few minutes he arrived at Geralds house and rung the doorbell. A few moment later Musa opend the door.

"Anthony what business bring you to our house?" she asked.

"I need to speak with both you and Gerald please."

Musa opened the door more guestering for Anthony to come in."Of course come in."

A minute later the tree of them were in the main room sitting around the table.

"What brings you here Anthony?" Gerald asked.

"Sir. Ma'am mining chief " Grarurim has finally broken through to the Magicite deposit.

Both Musa and Gerald became serious looking as they shared a look between each other.

"I see so it's finally time aya," Gerald said stroking his chin. "It seems my long held wish will finally be fulfilled. But I no doubt know those empire basterds will interfere and try to chase me out for my beliefs like last time forty years ago."

Musa turned to her husband. "We must be patient and build up a base of power before selling the Magicite more openly."

Gerald turned to Musa. "Slow and steady wins the race. Unlike last time I'm not going to rush things. But those blades in Varuda worry me. If they follow the Mamono refugees here."

"We may have to abandon the plan," Anthony said as Gerald and Musa turned to him. "At the very least we cant let them find the Magicit deposit."

Gerald growled in frustration lightly slamming his fist on the table with a *THUMP* "If it comes to that then we will have no choice."

* * *

Meanwhile at the front gate of the village the twins Arch and Nash stood at the open gate with the trio of the beastkin Wolf, rabbit and cat girls playing cards in back in the guard house inside the gate.

"*Yawn* Man being on guard duty sure is boring sometimes," Arch stated leaning against the log fort wall that made up the front gate of the village.

"More like all the time," the twin Nash replied. A few moments passed before Nash heard the sound of horses galloping towards them."Huh? someone's coming."

Both twins focused standing at the ready as they waited for the approaching people to come into view on the curving road.

After a few moments of waiting the both of them saw two horses and their riders come galloping around the corner moving at a steady pace.

"Wonder who they are?" Nash asked.

As the two riders came closer the two brothers recognised one to be a samurai from the southern lands by his armor and the other looked very familiar like someone they knew.

"Is that... Fuma?" Arch asked placing a flattened hand over his eyes to block out the sun hand.

Nash looked over to his brother. "Didn't we just see her a hour ago at the inn?"

Arch looked over meeting his brothers eyes. "Yeah its her day off too. What the heck?"

The two twins turned their eye forward as the two horse riders approached them.

"Hello. Is this Ansta village. My name is Ichinose and i'm incharge of a group of Mamono refugees from the southern city of Varuda. We require a shelter to rest and resupply. May we enter your village?"

Both brothers just stood there spacing out for a few moments before replying.

"Uh," Nash started. "My I ask a question of my own."

Both Ichinose and Fuka shared a glancing look. "Sure," Ichinose replied.

Arch pointed at Fuka. "Are you in any way related to another beast kin that just so happens to look just like you?"

Fuka pointed at her self with a grin. "Me yeah I have a twin sister. I know she's in this village because we came her along time ago and while I left she stayed to retire," Fuka put her hand down. "She said she liked the peaceful solitude of the mountains. But that's not my thing so I left."

Both Nash and Arch gave each other a look before getting in a shoulder to shoulder huddle speaking softly.

"What should we do?" Nash asked.

"Fuma will kill us if we refuse them," Arch said.

"And there's a rumor flying around that Mista almost got killed by some of those Blades guys from the Vekuris Empire when she was in Varuda a few days ago."

"What yah whispering about?" a female voice asked.

"Well, "Nash replied. "Were deciding what we should do with these refugees guys from... hey,"

The twin looked up seeing Fuma behind them with a grin on her face.

"You know I smelled a familiar scent while I was walking by," Fuma stated as she shifted her eyes to her twin sister on horseback. "Fuka!"

"Fuma," the other beastkin twin replied.

"So what brings you back to this little ol town."Fuma asked as she walked up to her sister.

"Well my current job brought me back this way. So I had no choice then to meet you."

Meanwhile a empire shadow agent watched the group at the villages front gate talk for a moment before shifting back into the shadow of a tree. He reappeared in a clearing some miles away back down the road where he started gathering some large rocks into a circle and enchanted each one with a summoning mark shaped like a inner and outer circle with eight hollow triangles pointing outwards in all directions. Just as he was placing the tenth rock of the half completed circle a voice called out.

"Up to no good are we," stated a young female voice.

Instantly the shadow agent jumped backwards pulling out a curved dagger with gold markings.

"To slow," Estalla said from behind the shadow agent as if board holding the man's bloody heart in one hand.

"Urgh... uh... a vampire bu...?!" The shadow agent stammered before falling face first dead on the ground with a pool of his own blood slowly flowing out from below him.

Estella turned around with a board look on her face before sinking her fangs into the heart draining it dry of blood and magical energy until it became a gray wrinkled piece of meat that she dropped unceremoniously.

"Ma lady," said a undead maiden as she bowed holding out a handkerchief.

Estella took the handkerchief gently wiping her mouth clean of the blood before handing it back. "Well this guy wasn't much fun. I would have expected a assassin of the empire to be much faster and much more skilled. Must be new. The empire must have sent out freshly trained recruits to do their dirty work. What a waste," she said disappointingly.

"Ma lady shall we remove the body?" another undead maiden asked appearing from out of knowhere.

Estella glanced at the corpse for a moment. "All the magical energy it had has already escaped into the atmosphere and it's not like we really need the blood. let the crows have it."

At that Estella and her undead maidens left in blurs of motion quick as the wind. Moments after they left a enchanted ring on the now dead shadow agent's body activated enveloping his body in darkness transporting him somewhere else.

* * *

Back at Varuda city in the courtyard of a military barracks given to the Blades for their use a group of four Blades sat around at a table playing cards. A moment later another completed summoning circle in the courtyard started to glow and it's inner zone filled with a black shadow like barrier.

"Huh? it activating," one guard said as the other took notice.

Then as they watched the body of the dead shadow agent appeared from the circle of darkness before it deactivated.

"Isn't that!" the one guard said in surprise as the two of them ran to the body looking it over and seeing that it had a hole where the heart should be.

"Damn. I'll alert the Captain and Lieutenant," the other guard said standing up and walked off before the first guard picked up the body and carried it off.

Moments later on the building's second floor the guard stopped at a door labeled officers room in the local dialect and knocked three times. "Sir it's the shadow agent sent to follow the monsters sir. I has news to report."

"Coming" was heard from inside the room.

The door opened revealing a half dressed Captain Aster, "Report?" the captain said.

The blade saluted. "Sir the shadow agent is dead. His body appeared in the summoning circle."

Captain Aster gave a unpleased-face. "This is not good. He must have been found out. Gather the troops," Aster ordered.

The Blade soldier saluted with a "Yes sir" and walked off.

A few minutes later in a dark room filled with bloody tools of various types all unpleasant a man hummed as a muffled scream gurgled out from a ball gagged and bloody mouse girl as she hang naked by leather straps from the ceiling. In a cage along the wall in the middle of the room sat two unconscious and naked mouse mamono girls also covered in blood and scars showing that they were alive but barely from the abuse they've also suffered. Their bodies covered in bloody cut marks, and acid burns reaching from head to toe.

Another muffled scream echoed through the dark room as a spurt of blood fell on the floor joining many others.

*Knock*knock* was heard from the door forcing the man to stop his sadistic work. He placed a curved knife with a half moon tip onto the nearby table with the other tools and walked to the door taking out the key he stole from Reinhart. The door opened revealing the man's chiseled square face covered in many tiny bloody speckles with is short black hair and half opened dull amber colored eyes. "Yes what?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"The blades are assembling in the courtyard. The summoning gate has been activated. Get your gear on we are heading out" the guard Blade said.

The blood speckled man gave a tiny grin as he replied. "Be there in a minute." He said closing the door. A few minutes later he was fully clothed in his shadow agent gear and armor and started walking to the door. "Be back in a bit my little pets," he said as he left closing the door and taking the key to the pocket dimension room.

After the man left the room fell silent as a tiny muffled cry filled the room with the half dead breaths of the four pained inhabitants.

"Please... someone... anyone. Help. Please."

The weak voice came from half naked body of Reinhart strapped into a chair near the door with tear marks running down his reddened face.

A half hour later a group of one hundred Blades and four shadow agents stood at attention in two groups both beside the summoning circle in the middle. Moments later Captain Aster and Lieutenant William walked in fully dressed and armed. Each of them walked to the head of each of the two groups and stopped giving a salute that everyone returned.

"What's the situation?" Aster asked.

One of the masked shadow agents stepped forwards. "The summoning circle on the other end is incomplete captain and can't be used. But one of us can travel to the area quickly and complete it."

The captain thought a moment as he rested a hand on the handle of his blade. "I want all four of you to go just in case. The other shadow agent was killed while trying to finish the circle on his end so it would be safer if you traveled as a group. Once your over their scout the situation and report back."

At that the four shadow agents saluted captain Aster before disappearing into and traveling through the shadows.

* * *

In Gerald's house in the main room was a table and four chairs in which sat Ichinose, Fuma and Fuka who were sitting side by side facing Gerald. Musa in full humanoid form walked over to them from the kitchen counter holding a tray in both hands that held five cups of warm tea.

"Hear you go," she said placing a cup in front of everyone before sitting down her self.

"Thank you very much," Ichinose thanked as he bowed slightly before taking the cup in hand and sipping.

Fuma and Fuka both did the same as did Gerald and Musa.

"So," Gerald said. "I've heard that the Empires murders have arrived in the nearby city of Varuda. I assume the reason I have a few hundred Mamono refugees at my doorstep is because of that."

"Yes that is correct," Ichinose answered holding his tea. "Lord Hamilton mayor of Varuda city charged me and a group of Mercenaries and Adventures with the task of leading the refugees away from danger. We plan on continuing north until finding the port of Rayden and crossing the sword sea to the eastern continent."

Gerald listened as he sipped his tea. "I see. The Vekuris empire has always been intolerant of none humans but i've never known them to go out of their way to slaughter whole populations before. Most of the Harpies in our village are survivors of attacks on their villages further west. Something has changed in the empire and not for the better," Gareled said in a worried tone.

"This change in policy must be because of that new emperor that took the throne recently last year," Fuka stated as she took a medium sized sip of her tea.

Gerald stroked his chin thinking about that new piece of information. "Hmm. In any case I will allow the refugees sanctuary for ten days. That's all the time I can give you given their numbers and our limited resources. I have to think of my own people too."

"Perhaps I can contact some of my old friends and see if they can help," Musa suggested. before sipping her tea.

"Any aid would be appreciated," Ichinose replied before bowing.

"Now about accommodations for your people," Gerald stated. "We have a small forested area behind the village. That could serve as a temporary living zone."

Musa sipped her tea before speaking. "Most Mamono don't really mind roughing it outdoors so it should work for the time being."

"Right I'll let them know right away," Fuka said as she and her sister stood up.

"I'll come with you sis. We have some catching up to do," Fuma stated as her twin sighed.

"Sure come along," Fuka stated.

* * *

A few minutes later at the incomplete summoning circle a few miles outside of Ansta village four shadow agents raised out of the shadows cast by some trees. They glanced around quickly finding the incomplete summoning circle.

"He died on the job. How disgraceful," Mason quipped as he walked over to the half circle of stones.

The other two shadow agents gave him a dirty look before ignoring their rude team mate.

"Me and one of you will complete the circle while you two scouts the village up the road," Said the ranked shadow agent officer.

"I'm guessing that will be me and chuckles here, " quipped ons of the shadow agents as he patted the back of the agent beside him.

"Yes Mason you two go and leave the hard work to the professionals," said shadow agent no.2

"Fine then. Let's get going," shadow agent no.4 said as he and Mason left back through the shadows.

After a few minutes they reappeared raising out from a darkened water well in the middle of a yard beside a two story stone and wood house in the middle of town.

"Best to change our clothes so we blend in," suggested shadow agent no.4

"Yeah yeah," Mason replied as the two of them use the polymorph spell to change the shape and color of their clothes into normal attire of brown and black pants and a white and plaid shirts.

Once into normal clothes they sneaked out of the yard and into the street and from there they just walked like they were normal villager's.

* * *

Meanwhile a block away with Ellen Lulu and Mista **.**

"Hey aren't you two going to Varuda today," Lulu asked.

"That's later today. No need to go right now." Ellen replied sucking on her candy as a group of people up a head started speaking and gossiping about something. "What's going on over there" Ellen said pointing down the street.

After a few moments the group of people ahead of them backed off from the streets as a large procession of Mamono looking worse for wear marched through the street. Ellen recognized the sight well as she caused many such events many centuries before back on Earth. The only difference being the species of the refugees as they spread out through the the streets filling the town even more then before.

"Whats up where did they come from?" asked Lulu.

"Their refugees from Varuda," Ellen said as she walked forwards meeting with a Dryad.

Ellen noted her form looking like a very beautiful human woman in a green dress except for the leafy vines growing out of and coiling around her body with bark like hard plating over her back with four small branches with leaves growing on them and the flowers and leaves in her emerald green hair.

"Excuse me but where did you come from?" Ellen asked.

The Dryad hesitated for a moment surprised by Ellen's odd form.

"Oh well, A group of the empires Blades arrived at our city and forced us to leave. If any of us had stayed we would have been killed," the Dryad answered as the other Mamono refugees moved around them. Among them were some Lamia that included Sinithe who quickly spotted Mista.

"Hey Mista!" the Lamia teen shouted catching Mistas attention.

"Huh!? Sinithe. Your ok," Mista said as Sinithe slithered over to the group.

"I'm glad I get to meet you again," Mista said as she hugged Sinithe.

"Yeah me too," Sinithe replied.

"I see you two know each other," the Dryad said with a grin on her face seeing friends reunited.

"We only meet once before," Mista admitted. "But we hit it off well," Mista said.

As Mista and Sinithe talked Ellen's blood boiled in anger for a moment as she realized she had done the exact same thing many many years before. _"Still at least I didn't kill those people because I hated them,"_ Ellen thought to herself while deep in her soul Ellen's other red half chuckled. _"Hehehe really now. Like that matters. We still killed those people just as if we slit their throats ourselves. It doesn't matter that it was Zerg that did the deed. What matters is that WE chose and ordered the killings I CHOSE TO KILL BILLIONS OF PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE IT FIT INTO MY LITTLE PLAN."_ Red Ellen shouted from within.

* * *

Meanwhile Mason and his partner walked down the streets until coming to a large three story Inn near the middle of town. They entered the front doors stopping at the counter. "Hello gentleman," greeted a human woman in a dress styled uniform. "Can get a room for the two of you."

Mason grinned. "Yes me and my business associate here are to rent one two bed room. And please make it on the third floor if you could."

"Do you have any bags?" the front counter girl asked.

"No we don't have any bags."

After signing in Mason and the other shadow agent walked up the stairs until reaching the third floor and their room. They walked out to the balcony that gave them a great view of the town as they were at the highest point in town staring out at the buildings and people stretched out before them quickly noticing the many None humans here and there and then they noticed the large group of the monsters moving through the town from the front gate to the rear of the village.

"Heh. Filthy monsters," Mason said with venom and malice dripping off each word.

* * *

Ellen gritted her teeth and all four of her fists so hard she bled from her own claws digging into her flesh.

"Uh! are you alright. Here let me heal you" the kindly Dryad said seeing Ellen was distressed.

The Dryad held Ellen's hands out as a golden light flowed from the flowers on her arms to into the holes in Ellen's hands quickly healing them.

Wiping a tear from her own eye Ellen looked the Dryad in the eyes. "Thank you. And thanks for telling me about that. By the way what did you do in Varuda if I may ask?"

Seeing the sincerity in her eyes The dryad answered introducing herself. "My name is Nysa and I was the grounds keeper of lord Hamiltons estate. But like all the other None humans I was forced to leave."

"So where will you go now?" Ellen asked while glancing at Sinthe as the question was directed at both of them.

In that same moment the wind changed direction picking up speed for a moment as it blew a sickeningly familiar smell to Ellen. Her demeanor changed slightly as her nose and sensor horne's allowed her to detect the faint trace's of blood in the air along with the agitated magic particles that seemed to be permeated with murderous intention.

Nysa continued talking. "Well I'm planning to travel with the group until we move to the Eastern continent across the sword sea. If that can't be done I suppose I'll... huh?"

Nysa, Lulu, Mista and Sinithe suddenly noticed Ellen was stiffened and had a focused look to her eyes.

"Are you ok Ellen," Mista asked placing a clawed wing on her shoulder.

"Yeah... I'm fine. I just got to go do something," Ellen replied as she turned around and left into a ally between two buildings.

Both Lulu and Mista were confused and concerned by Ellen sudden shift in behaviour as she walked down the ally.

"Where are you going?" Mista asked as she followed after Ellen but then turned around at Sinithe. "Sorry Sinithe. We can talk later ok."

"Yeah sure. I'm not going anywhere," Sinithe replied feeling a little disappointed as Lulu followed after Ellen and Mista.

They traveled down the ally until coming to a cross section where Ellen stopped and smelled around. Both Lulu and Mista shared a glance of worry between each other as Ellen sniffed the air. Ellen then ran off forcing both Mista and Lulu to follow after her.

Meanwhile a few minutes later Nysa and Sinithe entered the town bar and both of them quickly saw the rowdy atmosphere of the the place as the men drunk beer talked, played card games while some maids served food or refilled the glasses of alcohol.

The two Mamono had never been in this kind of situation and in a strange way delighted in the new experience. Shrugging at the situation they walked up to the bar and ordering some drinks and food.

Back with Ellen she sniffed the air a minute before looking to her left. She ran down another ally quickly reaching the street opening and started weaving passed the now tighter grouping of people as she moved closer to the smell of blood she was picking up. Ellen was remained of the time she had killed and eaten those Shadow beast by the smell. And it also reminded her of the humans she had her Zerg kidnap during the attack on Reach many of whom were mutated into human Zerg hybrids in infestation experiments by Abastein under her order.

Flashes of that infested woman that attacked her in the evolution chamber hunted Ellen's mind as she felt the need to find the source of this bloody smell. It agitated her to no end as she wondered why and how it was only hitting her now. Ellen continued moving through the crowd's following her nose as she went but before she noticed both Mista and Lulu had lost her leaving Ellen alone to track the scent by her self.

Minutes passed and she finally arrived at a tall three story Inn in the center of town sensing that the smell had gotten even stronger now. She looked up seeing the two upper balconies above and the heads of two people on the top balcony looking out at the town.

 _"Them."_ Ellen thought as her instincts took over sensing danger but not for her self but instead for the town and everyone in it. Ellen fully extended her wings and leaped upwards giving one powerful flap that launched her up onto the handrail of the third balcony.

"Gah!"

"Eh"

The two men exclaimed as they jumped backwards moving into combat stances as Ellen grabbed onto the support pillar to her left and the hand rail to her right with her upper arms while staring at the two man grinning at the fact she had just outed these two spies who obviously were trained to fight by the way they took combat stances so quickly.

"I see you two are trained fighters then. Ellen stated narrowing her eyes into a focused combat state. "Now who are you? Wait. Scratch that. I already know who you are."

"Oh! but this is the first time we've meat little lady." Mason replied with a smile trying to cool off the situation while he held both hand up openly while his partner slowly started pulling a throwing knife from behind his back. "Usually when someone's accused of a crime there's needs to be evidence to back up the clam. So little lady what is it that you think we did." Mason said sarcastically as he and his partner readied themselves for a fight.

"Your killers," Ellen replied deadpan while giving the two men a death glare. "I can sense the blood on your hands. Literally. You've killed someone recently. Or tortured them. You see I have a certain friend named Abastein that also has a propensity for... experimentation. And because of that I know it when I sense the smell of blood. But that's not all. I also can sense the lingering traces of a deep fear and sorrow coming off you."

Somewhere else Lulu and Mista walked the streets looking for Ellen after they were seperated.

"Damn where is that girl?" Mista exclaimed glancing around.

"Where do you think she went to?" Lulu asked in a concerned tone as she looked around.

"I don't know but it must have been serious to make her bolt like that," Mista said.

Just before she was going to fly up to search from the air Mista noticed a town beastkin militia member with a wolf's tail and ears walk by them seeming like she was in a hurry herself. "Hey you can you help us," Mista yelled at the wolf woman.

She turned around with a flick of her tail staring at Mista. "Yes what is it?" She replied.

"Our friend is missing and we think she is in trouble," Mista explained.

"I see. "The militia woman said. "I don't know if it is related but I have caught a scent of blood in the air. Maybe your friend has been hurt."

* * *

The second shadow agent glanced at Mason knowing it was his bad habit of mutilating and torturing Mamono and even some humans that were branded as heretic's and traitors that had blown their cover.

 _"Fucking maniac this is your fault. Our cover is blown now,"_ The second shadow agent thought as he threw his poisoned knife at Ellen's head.

Ellen already in a hairs trigger stance shifted her body to the left evading the knife as it flew mere millimeters past her face. A half second later Mason lunged forwards reaching out to grab her. Acting instead of reacting Ellen cartwheeled on the safety rail and out of Masons hands landing on the balcony to Mason's right.

"Not smart to try and grab a dragon unless you got a ace up your sleeve," Ellen said as she kept a eye on both men while she stayed in a crouched combat stance.

Ellen noticed Masons left eyed twitch when she said that meaning he did have some kind of ability or weapon that could either kill or incapacitated her.

"Your a smart girly," Mason said as he pulled a short 9-inch blade out from the back his vest.

Ellen smiled thinking up her next move. "I already know that your not normal people and that your killers. So there's no reason to stay here. I'll just tell the town militia on you." Ellen stated just before jumping backwards flipping over the balcony guard rail and out of sight.

"Shit"

"Damnet'"

Mason and his partner exclaimed as they rushed over to the guard rail but upon looking over the edge they saw nothing but the street and a pile of trash cans below.

* * *

 **A few minutes before.**

In the street below Lisa walked down the street running an errand for her grandmother. Turning she entered a general store. Inside the store it was full of foods ranging from fresh produce and meat kept cool in frost enchanted containers and other foods set on rows of shelves to rare canned goods traded from across the sword sea. And many kinds of tools ranging from carpentry wood cutting and mining pickaxes to a few bows and crossbows resting on the wall behind the front counter or in a display table with a glass top beside the front counter.

Once inside Lisa walked over to the counter picking up a basket like she had done many times before and walked around the store picking up some food for herself and her grandmother. First picking out some vegetables she picked up and compared two tomatoes before placing one in her basket. She then walked down an aisle picking out a few apples and canned corn along with some bananas, strawberries and flour and lastly two five pound bags of meat.

Seeing as her basket was full Lisa went to the front counter and paid for the food. The desk clerk gave change back and bagged the groceries. Lisa left the store with both hands full of food. As she was walking down the street avoiding collisions with other people she stepped left moving out of big mans way and ran into a redheaded classmate in a red shirt and black skirt.

"Oh uh Lisa," Rose said as she stopped just few inches short of colliding with Lisa.

"Oh it's you," Lisa said with a surprised expression.

"Hehe hi Lisa. Uh what are you doing today," Rose asked uncomfortably.

"Collecting groceries. What does it look like. Are you blind?" Lisa shot back.

Rose not the type to be confrontational shrink back. "Ah uh na no. I was just trying to make conversation. I uh... we never talked outside of school so I."

"Listen little miss red head were just classmates nothing else." Lisa stated smirking at Rose. "Your not even good enough to be my rivle," Lisa said up turning her nose in a sense of superiority knowing she was the top student both in terms of normal clases and magic class.

"Uh..." Rose looked down for a moment feeling a little depressed before looking Lisa in the eyes. "I know i'm not as good as you are Lisa but you don't have to be a jerk about it," Rose replied standing up for herself.

Lisa pouted angrily at Rose as she stared defiantly back. Just then Rose's mother came out from the nearby hairdresser shop with her hair cleaned and cut shoulder length.

"Rose is this one of your friends from school?" Roses mother who was in a normal sky blue dress asked.

"Yeah we go to the same school," Rose answered.

Just then a crashing noise was heard from across the street attracting Lisa, Rose, and her mother's attention as well as dozens of other passer by's. Across the street two adult men and a Mamono that Lisa and Rose recognised as Ellen picked themselves up off a pile of trash cans and one of the men sunk into the shadows of the building while the other attacked Ellen.

* * *

 **A few Moments before.**

Confused for a moment both men didn't notice Ellen fly up behind them from the other side of the balcony using wind magic to float and then jetted forwards.

In that instant they realised they had been had and were both struck from behind by Ellen flying at top speed making all three crash over the balcony and land on their backs in the dirt street startling some passer buys.

* * *

"Gah your going to pay for that! bitch," Mason exclaimed as he undone the polymorph on his weapons and gear reforming his clothes back into their full size and shape and pulled a dark golden blade out of its sheath on his lower back.

Ellen leaped back as Mason took a few swings at her as she noticing the second shadow agent had fled. "Looks like your partner had more brains then you and ran."

Surprised Mason looked around seeing that she was correct and he was alone. "Why that little..."

"Let me guess" Ellen interrupted. "your the kind of guy that gets off on the screams and pain of others huh."

Mason growled as he focused on Ellen. "You are so dead little monster bitch!"

"Oh and I guess all the witness's are just going to go free then?"

Mason distracted for a fleeting moment by Ellen's provocation making him move his eye's around to all the dozen or so people staring at the them. In that split second Ellen shifted her stance twisting around while lowering her body and whipping the prehensile tip of her tail around Masons left leg.

"HUH!" was the only thing that escaped Masons mouth as he was pulled up into the air and slammed back on to the hard ground. Ellen grinned enjoying that and did it again and again feeling a deep sense of satisfaction when ever he made a ka-wack noise when he hit the ground shattering his shadow agent mask into tiny pieces.

"Grrr, uuuuh," Mason growled as he reached back slashing the tip of Ellen tail off in one slice.

Ellen exclaimed in surprised pain as she brought her now shorter tail tip up to her face seeing the tip had been sliced cleanly off as if cut off by a laser but with no burn marks. Now taking more interest in it she focused on Masons blade which was a smooth single edged semi curved blade made of pure dark gold colored metal.

 _"Shit!. Just what kind of blade is that?"_ Ellen thought as the tip of her tail regenerated more slowly then normal."Where did you get a weapon like that? she asked in a hostile and now somewhat fearful tone.

Mason chuckled happily seeing that this brate kid was afraid of something. "Hell that's where. And i'm gonna send you their real quick after I split you open like a melon."

Mason lunged forwards thrusting and slashing his blade at Ellen. She dodged within a hairs breath weaving her body left and right as she evaded the fierce attack of the OP weapon.

 _"Ok then. The hard way it is then."_ Ellen thought as she extended her arms out instantly forming a sphere of compressed air around Mason who stopped in the air and felt instantly dizzy from the sudden increase in air pressure placed on his body. Ellen slowly closed her lower arms applying more pressure on Mason in the near invisible sphere of pressurized air. Unconsciously she made a wicked grin of satisfaction as she heard bones pop and break from the pressure she as applying.

"ELLEN!" shouted a voice behind her.

Ellen turned back seeing a frightened looking Lulu and a concerned Mista staring at her along with one of the beastkin wolf girls from the town militia. Ellen then looked around realizing the crowed of people watching her along with two more militia officers that had just arrived. It was then she recognised both Lisa and Rose from school staring at her with frightened expressions on their faces. Ellen snapped back to her senses letting Masons limp body fall to the ground.

"I thought I smelled something bad coming from this direction," the militia wolf girl stated as she walked up to the crumpled and unconscious body of Mason and then looked over to Ellen. "Can you give me a explanation as to why you attacked this man?"

"You mean me?" Ellen asked a little confused for a moment before recognising the wolf girl as the same one that was with Fuma when she found Ellen in that cave.

"Yes you. I could feel your blood lust half the town away. Yours and his." The militia officer said just as three more militia officers arrived.

"Ellen what did you do?" Rose mumbled to herself in a surprised and fearful tone holding her enclosed hands up to her chest.

Picking up on the question with her sharp senses Ellen glanced over at her school mates.

"Rose I..." Ellen uttered as she regretted scaring Rose and Lisa.

In that same moment Mason regained consciousness. Slowly and painfully got up to his feet. He was still dizzy from having been in a air compression field and his eyesight and balance wavered from his injuries as he raised and threw his blade aiming for Ellen but missed by a hair's breath.

A millisecond later the blade flew passed Ellen's shoulder and into her sight line as she was facing both Rose and Lisa. The moment she caught sight of the blade flying at them Ellen's mind went blank as the world seemed to slow to a crawl, acting without thought or reason only need she searched her memories for anything that could help finding the times she had trained in the use of a ultra speed air manipulation technique she had experimented with in what free time she had and acted.

[Tempest Step] shouted in Ellen's mind as she disappeared from view.

In just 1 tenth of a second later Ellen was suddenly in front of Lisa and Rose as a gentle gust of wind blew their red and blond hair back a bit. _"Ellen!,"_ they both thought as each of their faces was stained with a single drop of blood that was carried aloft by the wind currents.

Ellen looked up into their eyes. "You... ok Heh." Not a second later the other militia officers tackled Mason disarming him and holding him on the ground arms behind his back as Ellen with the dark gold blade sticking all the way through her chest collapsed as It's mere presence seemed to cut into Ellen's body.

"Damn!" Luna the wolf girl militia officer shouted as she acted quickly pulling the blade from Ellen's back. "Damn. A Bane weapon?! How the hell did this guy get something like this!" she asked out loud greatly surprised by the pressence of such a weapon.

Luna stared down at the collapsed Ellen surprised that the hole in her torso was slowly closing up on it's own. Seeing that Ellen was ok for now she turned back to Mason gesturing for the other officers to lift him up to his knees as she walked over to him and held the blade up to his face. "Where did you get a Bane weapon from?"

Mason laughed definitely. "Hahaha. The Emperor of the Vekuris empire gave it to be so I could kill dragons. "He then glanced at Ellen as Lisa and Rose both kneeled over while Lulu and Mista joined them. "Too bad. It seems she was a half breed. Otherwise it would have split her open haha."

"What!" Luna said in surprise as she heard a commotion turning back to Ellen.

Surprisingly Ellen stood back up weakly as she leaned on Lulu's soft shoulders. Even as her friends showed their concern for her wellbeing. Even Lisa felt concerned for the girl but did her best not to show it as she only considers Ellen to be a rivel.

With pained breaths even as her body slowly stiched itself back together Ellen asked Lulu to help her to move as she turned towards the restrained Mason. Step by step she inched forwards head down as she coughed up some blood. Finally reaching Luna and Mason she raised her head staring Mason dead in the eyes.

"Heh... you missed," Ellen said in a mocking tone as she gave a blood stained grin. "Now then," she stated as she calmed herself down. "What is a bane weapon?"

Luna groaned in thought before explaining. "There cursed weapons made to kill one person in particular or any member of a given species. There vary hard to make and require a lot of skill and experience even from master forgers and enchanters. Both the material dark gold which is made by combining Orichalcum, mithril and gold to gather at the same time and the cursed death enchantment have to be made and combined at the same time from what I know. Which is why it's so difficult to forge. From the legends the first bane weapon was used to kill the All Mothers first born which was what started the great war back then."

"Huh and this weapon?" Ellen asked pointing to the blade in Lunas hand.

"It seems it was made to kill Dragons in general. I'm surprised your alive."

"Heh yeah well im more then Dragon. I guess you could call me a amalgam of three different races."

Ellen now calmed down started focusing on her magical sense from her hornes sensing the difference in the magic in the Bane weapon and the surrounding magical energy. [Used Magic item sense] But that wasn't all she sensed as another type of unique energy was coming from Mason's coat pocket drawing her attention.

"He has something in his coat pocket," she said prompting Luna to check said pockets finding a key like object. "Whats this?" she asked dangling the key over Mason face.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the summoning gate outside of town the other two Shadow agents had completed the summoning circle and had begun bringing in reinforcements through it. A force numbering five dozen squads of the Blades (12 men per squad) had formed rank's around the stone circle and stood ready to defend the beach head.

Some of the soldiers lowered their spears as a man in casual where appeared out from behind a tree.

"Halt. Identify yourself?" the Blades ordered.

The man held up his hands. "It's me," the man said as he undid the polymorph spell returning to his normal masked and cloaked form which the other soldiers recognised.

"The sun rises in the south?" one of the blades guards asked in code.

"But it's cold in the north," the shadow agent replied.

"Oh you must be one of the scouts that were sent ahead of us," said one of the soldiers as they retracted their spears.

"Whats going on in the village ahead of us?" asked Lieutenant William as he walked up to the five men.

The shadow agent and Blades saluted the officer. "Sir my partner slipped up and let himself be detected by the enemy," the shadow agent explained.

"Give me the details," William ordered.

"Yes sir. My partner Mason who had went scouting with me had a bad habit of keeping some monsters as pets for a while and tortured them. He had always cleaned off afterwards and it had not effected our job. Until now. But a odd Mamono sensed the blood on his person and attacked us."

"And you fled to report his death?" Lieutenant William stated crossing his arms.

"No my lord. He was alive when I fled to report our failure to maintain our cover."

"You left a comrade behind?" William accused his subordinate.

"You could put it that way ma lord. But Mason always was something of a loose cannon that was recruited from prison."

William looked off into the direction of the village. "So did you find anything of interest or note in that town?"

"Yes. It seems it is a mixed village of humans and Monsters. Mostly Harpies, and some slimes. Not counting the monsters that fled from Varuda who have entered the town." the shadow agent answered.

Lieutenant Williams lips made a ghost of a smile as he realized the village may hold survivors of past extermination raids he had carried out which may also include that Harpy he nearly killed a few days before.

"You." William called out pointing at on of his troops. "Go back through the summoning portal and inform the Captain that I'm starting a annihilation operation on the village of monster sympathizers. And that we may need reinforcements."

The soldier nodded replying with a "yes sir" before running into the circle and disappearing in flash of light.

Lieutenant William turned to his men arrayed before him. "Men. Soldiers of the Vekuris Empire. It is our sworn duty to protect our father land and our people from all threats foreign and domestic. And now we will purge yet another den of monsters and their human sympathizers from our lands as our ancestors did in days long past. My the golden lion god of war Fayner guide our blades and Enili the Stag god of prosperity protect us as we wash away the corrupted from our lands."

"Long live humanity," one of the soldiers shouted quickly joined by the others.

"LONG LIVE HUMANITY."

"DEATH TO TRAITORS"

"LONG LIVE HUMANITY."

"DEATH TO TRAITORS," they shouted.

With his inspiring speech of murder and death over the Lieutenant and his men marched off into the direction of the village.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Mason ever proud about his bloody work smiled as the enchanted key dangled in front of his face. "It's a enchanted key I use to enter my... private workshop hehe. Why don't you use it and see my art for yourselves."

Luna grumbled as she looked at the key knowing what it does now. She looked over to a nearby door to a street front store and thought about testing the key out but decided against it.

"Were taking this scumbag back to headquarters for a more private interrogation," she ordered the other militia officers.

The other militia members picked Mason up placing enchanted leather anti-magic strap over his for arms tying them together so he couldn't use magic or his hands to escape.

"I'm coming to," Ellen stated as she stared at Luna.

"This is town militia business kid, " Luna stated staring Ellen back down.

"If it wasn't for me this guy would have gone unnoticed," Ellen stated as a familiar voice called out.

"Why don't we all go together."

Every one turned to see Musa standing behind Ellen in her full humanoid form.

"Lady Musa, I..." Luna said before being cut off.

"Come now surely my word carries some weight with the towns militia. And i'm also curious about this situation so we should find a proper location to investigate further."

"Very well then," Luna relented as she the other militia members man handled Mason with Lulu, Mista and Ellen all walked to the militia HQ. As she walked away Ellen glanced back catching sight of Rose and Lisa both still looking at her with concerned faces on. The feeling of frightening them made Ellen regret her actions as she wondered if they'll be afraid of her now.

While the group left the area A very interested Estella and her undead maides watched from afar.

Estella gave a tiny smile as she had found someone very interesting indeed. _"So the empire's blades are still on our heels then are they. In any case it is because of that i've found a very interesting person."_ Estella thought as she stared directly at Ellen as she walked off.

"Shall we follow them?" asked one of the undead-maidens.

"Yes," Estella quickly answered.

Ten minutes later the group had arrived back at the Militia HQ where Mason was placed behind bars while the group consisting of Luna three of her militia officers Ellen, Lulu Mista and Musa stood in front of his cell.

"Now then it would be proper four you to tell us what your business in our village is." Musa started as she stood in front of Masons cell. "But I already suspect you belong to the Vekuris Empire and we all know what their doing at the moment. Why else would a shadow agent of the empire be in a place like this."

Mason chuckled to himself. "Hahaha. All of you are going to die soon anyway so why bother."

"Were not going to get anything out of him," Luna stated as she held up the enchanted key.

Musa looked the key over before taking it. Instantly she sensed the corrupted magic emanating from the handle. "Hmm this key is drenched in his blood lust."

Mista, Lulu and Ellen wondering what that meant humming in contemplation.

"What do you mean?" Ellen asked.

Musa turned to the three young ones. "Blood lust is a technique used to intimidate one's enemies by projecting your murderous or killer intentions into the minds of your enemies." Musa glanced over to Mason in the cell. "But this one had a underdeveloped version of it leaking out of him dew to inexperience in using the technique or it's just that he didn't know of it. That must have been how you sensed him as I did."

Ellen putting two and two together started to understand that her magical sensory ability works like a dog's sense of smell in that there are many countless types of magical energy each with a unique attribute that makes it different. All this time Ellen had been sensing many different types of magic energy each with differing properties. But because of her lack of experience she had missed a lot of things such as this.

"Well then let's see what's behind door number one then," Musa said as she walked over to the rooms front door and inserted the key. The door glowed faintly as the keys magic activated linking the door with it's linked pocket dimension.

Mason grinned sitting in his cell as he could not contain his excitement at wanting to see their faces when they see his works of art.

As the door was pulled open a bit Musa along with Ellen and everyone else with the exception of Lulu who did not have a sense of smell detected the scent of rotting flesh and blood in the air. Musa and Ellen's eyes narrowed as they braced for what they both new was on the other side.

In one motion Musa swung open the door seeing the gruesome handy work of the man in the nearby cell. Musa glanced at Mason seeing he had a complacent stone faced smile on his face. Turning back to the door way she took a few steps inside seeing a naked and blood covered mouse Mamono girl handing up by a number of body straps over her arms and tirso directly in-front of her in the back of the room with her ears and tail removed.

To her immediate left was a unconscious half naked human boy no older than 11 or so strapped into a chair. And in the middle of the room by the wall were a few cages, most were empty except one which held two more bloody and naked Mouse girl Mamono in it covered in scars and like the first also had their ears and trails removed with one of the girls having a large partly closed hole in her chest.

"Oh! by the All Mother what the!" Luna gasped as she held a hand over her mouth as she stood in the doorway." Are they alive!?"

Musa placed a hand on one of the girls chest in the cage as it faintly raised and lowered almost imperceptibly. "Yes. But they have been tortured," Musa answered. "Their magic levels are also very low. They must have used it up trying to stay alive from the injuries and blood loss." Musa stated as she used a healing art [greater replenishment] transferring some of her magic into the two girls in the cage while also healing their wounds. She repeated the process with the boy and the other girl before cutting her down and asking Luna to help her.

Luna still affected by the sight of the room of horror shook her head clear of hesitation and pulled her enchanted knife out using it to destroy the magical reinforced lock, producing golden red sparks as she struck it open. Slowly and carefully she pulled the girls out one at a time before handing them to other militia members who despite being horrified by the sight took them out of the torture room. Luna then cut the boy free and picked him up.

Outside in the Militia HQ cell block room the Mamono girls were laid on the floor as a shocked Lulu and Mista watched in horror. Luna ordered the other militia members to fetch blanket's which were quickly procured and placed over the four victim's as they slowly recovered but remained unconscious on the floor.

Lulu remained shocked at the sight while Mista noticed Ellen's lack of a response. Although she was watching the four injured people be treated she seemed oddly unmoved by the terrible sight as if she had seen it before.

A moment later a explosion rocked the building as everyone looked around as the room shook from the tremor of a explosion of conciderable force and size.

"What the hell was that" Luna shouted as Mason chuckled annoyingly in his cell.

"Their here," he said allowed as he took an interest in Ellen's expression or rather lack thereof to his work.

* * *

At the front of the village the front gate was completely destroyed replaced by a with a blast crater and debris of logs and stone and a thick cloud of smoke rising into the air where it used to be.

From the rubble Arch pushed aside some debris picking himself up from the remains of the front gate. "Damn. *Cough*Cough* Hay Nash you alright?" he shouted.

A few moments of silence later a rumbling noise was heard just before a large pile of debris exploded outward revealing a roughed up Nash.

"Whoever in the hell did that is in deep horse shit," he exclaimed pulling his spear out of the pile of debris.

"What the hell their still alive?" shouted a voice through the smoke that caught the twin brothers attention.

Twins Nash and Arch turned to the forest in front of the now gone front gate seeing ten Blades soldiers standing with their weapon pointed at them.

"So it was you *uckers that tried to kill us," Nash stated as he took a combat stance.

"Die traitors to humanity." the Blades shouted as they charged.

"You first," Nash replied as sparks of red and yellow were made as he deflected a thrust from a sword aimed at his chest and an instant later he spun around roundhouse kicking his attacker away with such force that he flew twenty feet backwards.

"What the!" a blade stated as he and two others were stunned at the strength of the man they faced.

A moment later Nash dashed passed them as the three blades stopped all movement for a moment before falling dead from the cuts in their throat's spilling their life's blood.

Seeing their men fall more Blades soldiers joined in as both brothers fought for their lives. Meanwhile behind the fighting the other Beastkin girls recovered from the explosion picking themselves up and joining the battle.

"*Cough*cough* you ok." the rabbit girl asked as she drew her weapon.

"Yeah. I'm alive. But the twins need our help so lets join in," The cat girl stated.

The girls and twins fought fiercely against the blades parring and doudging their well aimed attacks that nearly took their heads or arms off. The Rabbite girl ducked a sword swing then spinning round landing a roundhouse kick that sent the empire soldier flying back into two of his fellow blades knocking them on their backs.

Just then another soldier came at her from the right side raising his glave over his head before bringing it down only for it to be blocked by the rabbit girls sword.

"Why wont you die," the blade soldier shouted at his intended victim.

The rabbit girl grinned at the man she was clashing blades with. "It's simple really. Most of us militia hear in the village are retired adventures. And we just so happen to have lost of high level gear."

The rabbit girl answered before parring the glave sending it into the dirt before grabbing the soldiers chest armor and with all her strength headbutted the man cracking his skull and leaving a blood stain on her own hair.

"These must be the Blades bastard's that forced the refugees to leave Varuda," the rabbit girl shouted over the sounds of battle.

Close by the cat girl stabbed a blade spear man in the neck. Yanking the knife out she crouched unsheathing her short sword and using it to parry a sword thrust that she changed into a spinning slash attack that cut between the enemies shoulder plating producing spurting blood from the front of the soldiers shoulders. Seeing a opening the cat girl jumped on the man's shoulders pinched his head between her feet and twisted her lower half. A snapping noise was heard and the mans' body went limp and lifeless.

"Theres alot of them," the cat girl shouted as ten more of blades shouted charged at her.

Just as the ten Blades soldiers were about to reach her. The cat girl got into a stance just before Arch appeared in front of her swinging his long sword at the ten blades soldiers but mid swing his sword grew longer and wider becoming a great sword as it made contact with the enemies cleaving two in half and sending the rest flaying back of stopping them in their tracks.

"COME ON WE CAN DO THIS ALL DAY," Arch shouted as he charged.

Meanwhile a few hundred meters behind the battlelines Lieutenant William stood observing the battle. Standing at the ready around him were dozens of other blades soldiers along with ten mages who were the ones that blew up the front gate.

"It seems this town will put up more of a fight the most," Lieutenant William stated as he watched the fighting.

Just then Captain Aster and his own group of soldiers arrived behind The lieutenant and his men.

"I heard you needed reinforcements. Are they putting up that much of a fight?" The captain asked.

"Yes it seems so," the lieutenant replied.

* * *

Meanwhile on the mountain top overlooking the embattled town the giant white lion with the golden mane watched in mild interest as the humans fought their petty battle. None of it interested the god of war Fayner one bit. He was only interested in the ONE, his sisters goddess Itia's prophecy spoke of. The one who would unite the world of Man, Monster, Demi, races, Elves, Dragons, Mamono and even the gods against the great shadow that will descend from the stars and threaten the world existence. Surly one such as that will be powerful and present a truly worthy challenge for a god of war.

"How much longer must I wait," Fayner grumbled in boredom.

* * *

 **Chapter end.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

 **Enter the Fractal-verse part 7**

* * *

 **Ansta town bar**

After showing the refugees on their way to the designated forested area behind the village Fuka and Fuma traveled to the towns bar for some catching up.

A half empty glass mug of a yellow foamy liquid smacked on a table as Fuma laughed.

"So then I tell him that if he wants my head he'll have to come and get it," Fuka said drunkenly as she continued her story to her sister.

She had been retounting to Fuma of the time back when she was cornered in a mine shaft by some knights belonging to a corrupt noble that had hired her for a job in involving a rival noble that had a few skeletons in his closet. But once she had found the illicit information on his rivel the guy betrayed her because he didn't want any witnesses that could leak how he got the information. Fuka then flamboyantly explained how she fought off the loyal knights to that corrupt noble guy and fled but still ended up being hunted down and cornered in a old mine.

"So how did you escape?" Sinithe asked as she listened from a adjacent table as she ate a hamburger while her table partner the dryad Nysa ate a bowl of vegetables with a large glass of water.

Leaning over towards Sinithe Fuka said. "Well after thoroughly baiting the guy's they charged weapons drawn to kill. But I just jumped over their heads deflecting their blades attempts to pierce me mid air and landed behind them." she said swiping a arm over her own head for emapsis. "It was then I sent a fire bolt spell into the ceiling collapsing it on top of them." Fuka paused to take a swig of what little was left of her drink then yelled for the waiter to get her another full glass.

"Anyway the roof collapsed on them and I high tailed it out of their as fast as I could. Then I went to the other guy... whos whos dirty laundry Iss had just grabbed it from and convinced him to hire me. An an uh a few days after... that that backstabbing jerk was in jail for... something and I had a nice big bag of gold for all my hard work." Fuka said finishing her story just as the waiter brought her another large glass mug of beer. "Tha thank you..." she thanked in a slurred speech.

Fuma sighed as she had never be any less embarrassed of her sisters lack of grace when drunk and her lack of a middle ground from being sober and hammered. "That's a good one sis. But I think you should cut back on the drinks. Just a tency bit."

"I think your sister is quite correct miss Fuka." Nysa said after having finished off her salad.

Fuka turned to the dryad with a drunken look on her face while holding the new and full glass mug up.

"Huh... why why should I listen ta you you... cannibal," Fuka replied before taking a large drink of the beer filled mug and slamming it onto the table making it shake from the impact.

 _"God thing that's thick glass otherwise it would have shattered."_ Sinithe thought as she finished off her meal.

As the others continued their conversations behind him Ichinose politely took the last of his own meal into his mouth and slowly chewed before sighing.

"Not used to the rowdy environment?" the bartender asked as he handed another patron at the bar counter a plate of food and drink.

Ichinose smiled turning to the bartender. "Not really no. But i've become accustomed to unpleasant thing's in my life so it really doesn't bother me as much as it did before."

The bartender nodded feeling the exact same way. "Everyone develops a thicker skin living through difficult times."

"Anyway can you tell me of any cheap inn's to sleep for the night," Ichinose asked as he brought out a small wallet and took out some paper money.

The barkeep raised a few eyebrows the moment he saw the paper money. "Sorry but we only take coins here."

Ichinose hesitated before giving a sigh. "That's right this town is apart of the trade route connecting the north eastern region of the continent with the western Vekuris empire that still favor's the old coin system."

"Yeah," the barkeep confirmed. "I heard that Varuda being more of an independent city state has started adopting the paper currency that's replacing the old coin system that the empire uses. Didn't that paper money idea first come from that human nation Arcadia?"

"Yes it did." Ichinose answered. "I know that because my nation far to the south had adopted the same paper money system a few decades ago. I guess that's why I had gotten used to it," he said with another sigh as he brought out the last of his silver coins and paid his food bill.

In the instant exact Ichinose placed his coins on the counter the whole place shook as a explosion like noise was heard by everyone. Glasses rattled, Tables shifted position's, some people fell over knocking other tables over.

"Wha! what's that?" Sinithe asked in a panic as she held her hands up to her head in fright.

Everyone in the bar was either holding on to something, on the floor or up against the walls as he shaking stopped. In the next moment Fuka, Fuma, Nysa and Sinithe saw Ichinose bolt outside hand on his sword.

"Where's he running off to and... what was that!" Sinithe said in a hesitant tone as Fuma followed him out the door while slowly followed by her sister who fell just shy of the door but picked herself back up before heading out.

Sinithe and Nysa gave each other a look before also following the others outside while the other patrons of the bar just stayed where they sat still a little shell shocked.

Outside Sinithe and Nysa spotted the others as they looked up into the distance where a large pillar of smoke was rising up from.

"It's them the empires Blades." Ichinose said gritting his teeth as he glared intently the the black pillar raising up from where he knew the front gate of town was.

"I thought we would have a little more time but I guess I was too optimistic," he said.

"Ugh That's... not good," a still drunken Fuka said pointing at the black smoke.

"Ichinose," Fuma said making the samurai turn to her. "If it's really the Blades of the Vekuris empire we have little chance of winning with what little forces we have. The best option would be to secure a escape route for the people and lead them to safety. But with so many..."Fuma looked around at the street full of people. "the refugees and the town's people." her voice sounding concerned.

"We have no choice but to fight correct," Ichinose said.

"Yeah," Fuma replied with a nod while Sinithe, Fuka and Nysa listioned.

"First we have to figure out from which directions the enemy is coming from or at least which is their weakest point in the incircelement so we can break through. Ichinose stated while everyone listened. "But again the people who can fight and the people that can't is too disproportionate for us to protect everyone."

Fuma and Ichinose both gritted their teeth as they both knew that they would have to sacrifice some to save others. The only question at this point was how many would die and how many would live.

 **"FUMA!"** a voice shouted from in side Fumas mind.

"Um. Musa is that you?" she asked not feeling too comfortable hearing voices in her head.

 **"Yes it's me. Now listen I have a plan. I want all militia members to bring the people to the forested area behind the town. A portal will open there that will take everyone to safety. Understand..."**

Fuma nodded. "Yes I understand. But what will you do?"

 **"I'll buy time with the few forces that I need to distract the Blades forces. But given their numbers it won't last long so make every second count. Also we need a medical magic user at the militia HQ right now. There are wounded that we can't move at the moment."**

 _"Wounded? but I thought none of the Blades had entered the town yet,"_ Fuma thought in surprise. "Understood. In fact I just recently meet someone that can help."

 **"Good."** Musa projected. **"I'll be fighting at the front gate where the Blades have attacked. The militia members there now should buy us some time but we already don't have much to start with. They are** **probably** **surrounding the town so the other east and eastern gates are probably blocked off by Blades sent to keep us contained."**

"Damnet so there using our own walls to keep us contained," Fuma growled. "Smart basterds. Ok I'll do what you said. Stay alive."

"You...*hick* ok sis?" Fuka asked leaning on Fuma's shoulder still a little tipsy.

"Nysa you have powerful healing magic right?" Fuma asked the Dryad as she felt a little pressured.

"Yes." she replied nodding.

"Good. I want you to come with me to the militia HQ and heal some people. "Ichinose if you would, please lead the adventures and mercs that came with you to the front gate and buy time for my militia to evacuate everyone."

Ichinose gave a nod. "Yes I will. But what about her.?

With the question given all of them glanched at Fuka as she stared back at all of them with her eyes half open.

"What?" Fuka said still drunk.

Fuma sighed slouching her shoulders down for a moment. "She'll come with me. She's useless in a fight right now."

"And what about me?" Sinithe asked not feeling sure as to what she could hope to do in this situation.

Fuma turned to the young Lamia. "You can warn people of the threat and tell them to evacuate to the back of the village. And help out in any other way that you can but don't be a hero and get yourself killed. UNDERSTOOD." shouting the last part for emphasis.

A little shaken by the stern words Sinithe nodded in understanding.

"Good," Fuma said as she shouted to everyone in the area."Everyone listen. The village is under attack and all of you need to get to safety. Their will be an evacuation to the forested area behind the village now go." After explaining the situation to the people on the street Fuma grabbed her sister and placed her on her back piggy back style. "Lets go Nysa."

Nysa nodded following Fuma as she ran down the street filled with terrified people all of differing races. Ichinose was the next to bolt into a sprint as he ran off to find the merc and adventure leaders who had said they were going off to buy some food for the next part of the journey that is as of now canceled. Leaving Sinithe to alone to do what she promised.

"All right everyone heard the captain of the militia," Vi shouted appearing in the middle of the street. "Let's get going to the forest alright."

The people started murmuring before agreeing and started moving as a unit to the back of town.

Vi turned to Sinithe. "Lets do your best to get as many people to safety ok."

Sinithe nodded. "Ya yeah ok."

* * *

 **Meanwhile with Musa and the others at the militia HQ**

Musa, Luna, Mista, Lulu and some other militia officers stood outside the HQ building watching as the smoke continued raising up from the towns destroyed front gate.

"I informed Fuma of the situation and she and a healer should be coming any time now," Musa reported to the group behind her.

"We should head to the front gate." Luna said gripping her sword in it's scabbard. "Like you said miss Musa the enemy doesn't need to out maneuver us. They only need to block us in and break through our defenses and then we'll be lambs to slaughter.

"What should we do?" Mista asked making Musa turn to her.

"You, Lulu and Ellen stay here and tend to those wounded kids. Let the adults handle this," Musa replied as she turned towards the dissipating column of smoke.

"Ok," Mista replied feeling dejected and useless.

"Young kids like you should enjoy your young lives and not bloody your hands with combat." Musa stated her back still turned. "Leave it to use ok. Musa then turned to the other militia officers present. "You lot help with the evacuation while we go to the front gate."

As the words left her mouth Musa Luna and the other militia members split up into two groups sprinting full speed through the street to their given tasks leaving Mista and Lulu alone in the street.

"Hmph... Let's get back inside Lulu," Mista said before turning around and walking back to the buildings front door followed by Lulu who still felt a little scared of the dangerous situation befalling them.

As the harpy and slime girl entered the building labeled Militia HQ Lady Estella and her maids watched from across the now empty street.

Back inside they returned to the room where the four injured kids were along with Ellen who was now just sitting in the corner arms around her legs as she stared at the unconscious bodies on the floor.

"Ellen?!" Mista mumbled under her breath as she and Lulu entered the room.

"Something the matter. I take it the fireworks have starting outside, HAHA," Mason said from inside his cell.

"SHUT UP!. I'm in no mood to talk to you, you bastard!" Mista shouted back staring daggers at the man.

Mason chuckled and shrugged before laying down on his wall cot. Refocusing Mista turned towards Ellen as she continued staring at the four kids that were tortured by the sadistic prisoner in the cell nearby.

"You ok Ellen?" Mista asked but got no response.

Sharing a glance with Lulu she took a few steps over to Ellen sitting down beside her. "Is there anything you need to talk about?"

* * *

Meanwhile at the front gate Arch his twin Nash and the two beastkin girls were still holding their own even as they fought against thirty men that soon surrounded them. Nash slashed with his Spear head retracting it then thrusting but was blocked by his opponents shield.

The Blade soldier pushed his opponents spear away with his shield before attacking with his long sword forcing Nash back up along with the other three lone defenders. Before too long the four of them were quickly pushed back to the demolished wall where the gate once stood.

"This isn't good," The cat girl beastkin said as she took a arrow in the shoulder. She gritted her teeth ignoring the the pain as she parried two sword strike's aimed at her head.

"Were getting overwhelmed here," the Rabbit girl beastkin said as she jumped back just in time to avoid a fireball that left her previous location a burned out black mark. She was then attacked by four different blade soldiers at once. She deflected all of their attack's but she had no opening to counter attack herself.

"Just hold on reinforcements will come soon. Im sure Fuma and that sister of her's are on their way," Nash said trying to encourage his friends as they fought a desperate battle like so many times before.

In the forest tree line a distance away from the battleground Captain Aster and Lieutenant William with the majority of the Blades forces watched as the few defenders desperately held off their assault.

"It's been a while since we've had a difficult fight," Aster noted watching the battle reach it's end with the defenders being overwhelmed by their numbers.

"For a small town militia they fight like experienced soldiers." Lieutenant William noted. "It's highly likely that they are retired adventurers. Or mercenaries.."

A soldier behind the two ranking officers asked a fellow soldier a question spurred on by the Lieutenant's comment. "I've always wondered what's the difference between a adventure and a mercenary anyway?"

The soldier beside him replied with. "Yeah they seem alike at first glance but in reality there very different groups."

The first soldier turned to the second and asked. "And what's the difference?"

The second soldier replied. "Well a mercenary is someone who fights for money with no real loyalty to anyone other then the highest bidder. While an adventurer Is beholden to the guild they accept jobs from and also have regulations that restrict what jobs they can take depending on the guild and nation that the guld works in. Also mercs normally only take protection, patrol or combat jobs while adventures take on a much wider variety of jobs that can range from hunting down some animal or monster for food body parts or to protect the local people like in goblin hunting or such."

"FUCKING GOBLINS!" a random soldier quipped in malice and venom filled words as he overheard the conversation with many others listening in murmured in agreement with him.

"Anyway," the second soldier continued. "Adventurers also have a history that originates with, but diverges from mercenary's as they split during the age prior to the great monster war in which the gods united all the human tribes and formed the first human nations. The mercs stayed warriors that protected the kingdoms cities and most important locations from monsters and the such with the nations armies while adventures like their name implies adventured out into the dangerous wilds to find food, rare minerals for mining and locations for setting up new settlements to expand the kingdom's or any other small time job like clearing monsters like giant rats and roaches from underground waterways.

"Wow your a regular encyclopedia," the first soldier said sarcastically.

"My dad was historien," the second soldier explained as the battle at the front gate winded down.

Nash cleaved two Blades soldiers head off even as two more charged at him, one landing a spear tip in his lower left side and the other he blocked before kicking them both away and quickly drinking a small one time use healing potion. The wound quickly closed as even more soldiers charged at him. He then lifted up his great sword before plunging it into the ground producing dozens of jagged stone pillars from the ground forming a semi-circle that connected to the walls and left only ten of the enemy forces for the few defenders to deal with.

"Come one!" The rabbit girl yelled as she and Arch charged.

The two of them quickly cut down the remaining soldiers before retreating to help the cat girl who had over the course of the battle took a dozen arrows and a fireball hit before collapsing.

"Is she ok?" a exhausted Arch asked as his brother Nash used the last of his healing potion to bring her back from the brink of death.

*COUGH*COUGH* "Uuh... ahh. We ah... win yet," the cat girl weakly said as she struggled to breath even with a arrow in her left lung.

"Just hold on until we can get you to a healer!" Nash said holding her in his arms and picked her up. I'll get her to a healer the rest of you..." Nash said before being cut off.

"Delay that order." Musa said as she, Fuma and Ichinose with dozens of adventures and mercs arrived to back them up.

"It's a about time," Arch complained as the rabbit girl gave a sigh of relief.

"Sorry for the wait," Ichinose said as he drew his long bladed katana and started to speak in a commanding voice. "Everyone form three defensive circles. Spear men at the front. Ax men to the flanks and swordsmen to the middle. Archer's and mages to the rear row."

Hearing the orders befitting a general Musa turned to Ichinose. "You have the commanding presence of a king or general."

Ichinose glanced at Musa. "I was a... king once. But not anymore," he said turning back to the stone pillars as they were bombarded by magic attacks and started to crumble.

Musa nodded in understanding as she crystalized her body resembling a suit armor. Seconds afterwards the stone walls fell and a flood of enemy soldiers charged at the defensive formation.

* * *

 **Meanwhile at Lena's candy shop.**

The elderly Lena and her grand daughter both rushed to grab the bare essential's they needed after hearing about the evacuation. The two ran round the house placing clothes and some non perishable food which included some of the vegetables Lisa bought not too long ago into luggage containers before exiting out the door.

"Why do we have to leave?!" Lisa grumbled in frustration carring as much as she could.

Lena looked down to her young granddaughter and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I know it's not fare Lisa but it's the way of the world. Don't hesitate just because you don't like it. If you do you may not live to see another day. So please just come with me and stay safe understand," the old woman said with a smile.

Lisa looked down before sighing remembering her short time in this village and the friends she had made and oddly enough the image of Ellen staring at her with that look of concern on her face even while a blade cut into her body flashed through Lisa's head. Shaking her head of the thought's Lisa nodded following her grandmother through the streets along with many other people. After awhile of walking through the town Lisa caught sight of one of her classmates Rose and her mother father and little brother moving with the crowds to the back of the village where the Mamono refugees also were.

"Damn it. Why can't we just fight them there are hundreds of us we can take them," yelled a impatient Lamia as she smacked one fist into a open palm.

"That's no good." A drider said waving her hand side to side. "None of us are trained soldiers. And those Blades soldiers always carry enchanted weapons of high quality so our bare fists and claws won't cut it."

"Yeah..." Another Lamia started. "We have no choice but trust that the militia can stop them."

The first Lamie made a dry laugh. "HAHA. Do any of you really think that a small mountain towns militia can stand up to the elite soldiers of the empire?!" the Lamia said with a half serious halfe scared look on her face.

The other Manono all looked at each other talking it over even as the humans that had just arrived listened to their argument. Before long the situation deteriorated and the humans of Ansta village started yelling at the refugee Mamono who yelled back that it wasn't their fault for not being born human and before long a human throw something that hit the fist Lamia on the head but that only agitated her more to the point of violence.

"Ok who threw that!" she yelled baring her claws and fangs as her lower snake half tensed up.

The humans all took a collective step back from the hostility in her tone but then.

"EVERYONE JUST STOP. WE'LL ALL BE FINE SO JUST PLEASE CALM DOWN," a weak but audible voice called out through the human crowed calming the stressful situation a tiny bit.

"Who said that?" the first Lamia asked still angry.

The humans looked amongst themselves for the one that had yelled out.

"I... I did," Rose said as the human crowd parted showing her standing in front of her parents.

"Rose what are you doing," the girls fearful mother said in desperation as the first Lamie slithered up to them making the other humans part as she passed through them. Near by Lise and her grandmother watched as the Lamia lowered herself over Rose as her mother protectively held onto her daughter while her husband held their youngest child.

"So tell me little one. What makes you think we'll be fine." the Lamia said staring daggers at Rose making her flinch. "Do you have any idea who's out there coming to kill all of us. HUH!?"

Rose then remembered what she and Ellen had talked about before about being afraid of others because their different on the day they first met.

Rose took in a deep breath and looked up at the intimidating monster girl staring back at her. "I... I know your scared but yelling and threatening each other won't help anything."

"Rose?" Roses mother said surprised at her normally so shy and reserved daughter speaking out so.

The lamia backed off a bit crossing her arms. "And what make's you think we'll be fine?" she said wanting to have anaswar.

"Well..." Rose said thinking of how to word how she feels. "I... made a friend just a few days ago. Her name is Ellen. And... I know that she can. No will protect us. On the first day she made friends with me even though i'm a.. afraid of Mamono and other monsters. She somehow made me feel more comfortable and relaxed around her then I ever have around other Mamono even though she looks like a scary dragon with the feathered wings of an angel and the horn of a unicorn and she even has two sets of arms. Shes weird but. She became my first friend since I started school."

Upon hearing Ellen's description all the Mamono listening in started talking amongst themselves having never heard of any Mamono race with a description like that as Rose continued.

"And just today she saved my life and that of a classmate. Some guy had thrown a blade toward us and an instant before we were hit Ellen was suddenly in front of us with the blade buried deep in her own body. I think the others called it a... Bane weapon."

The mention of such a cursed weapon made the Mamono and some human murmured and alk all the more even though they tried listening at the same time.

"I.. I still remember the blood. And yet despite the pain she must have went through. Ellen just stood back up like it was nothing and... And in the moment she stood there in front of me. With that blade sticking out of her, she didn't look like a wounded friend trying to protect her friends she... she instened looked like a mountain... a monster more terrifying than any of you. But... I still wasn't afraid. Because I knew that it wasn't me her anger was directed at but... at those that tried to hurt me and our classmate Lisa."

Lisa who was listening intently nearby also remembered the same event not a hour before and felt that everything she had said was true. "Ellen," Lisa said to her self feeling some what conflicted now about her feelings for Ellen. Was she the annoying new kid or a new friend that she had only just realized the value of. Lisa knew one thing that she wanted to see Ellen again and get to know her better.

Everyone's thoughts and words were drowned out in that moment as a powerful blinding light shown from the forest and died down letting everyone see what it had brought. Standing there before the gathered crowds of humans and Mamono was a large double door with stone edges. It slowly creaked open revealing a tall slime Mamono with a blue coloration and red markings on her left side. The other Mamono instantly felt a surge of magical power emanating from the new arrival as did the humans to a degree.

The pressure made all of them including Rose and Lisa who also being able to use and sense magic to a degree drop to their knees in fright from the overwhelming pressure they felt.

The slime girl was Eruabella one of the Demon Lords heavenly knights and as she stepped out of the gateway she glanced around noticing that she was scaring people to half death by her power and mere presence. She had not been around weaker beings for a long time and as such felt no need to hide her power. Seeing how she was effecting everyone present Eruabella suppressed her own power so as not to scar any one them.

"Sorry for the fright everyone."Eruabella said with a smile on her face. "My friend Musa whom some of you may know said that she needed my help to evacuate her towns population. If you all would please enter my gate here you will be transported to a safe place until the danger passes."

The gathered crowds all stood back up having recovered from the shock of her presence. The humans started talking amongst themselves debating on weather or not they should go while the Mamono all did as instructed and started moving through the gate. After a while the Humans decided and slowly started following through the gate.

As the Mamono and now Human refugees walked into her gate portal Eruabella stared intently off into the distance of the town and then up to the mountain above easily sensing the presence of a God but which one it was was yet to be determined.

"We'll things just got a hundred times more interesting. What is a god doing here of all places?"

* * *

 **Ansta Militia HQ.**

Inside the Militia HQ Ellen continued sitting in the corner of the room while Nysa healed the four kids that Mason had harmed. The golden light of her healing magic filled the room as Mista, Lulu, Fuma and her drunk sister who was sitting a chair watched.

"There that should get them out of any life threatening danger," Nysa said as the light faded and she stood back up.

"Mista, Lulu. I want you two to help get these four to the evacuation sight While I join the others in holding off the Enemy," Fuma said watching them nod in reply. She turned to Nysa. "Could you help my sister with her drunken stupor."

"Sorry I don't know any spells like that," Nysa regrettably replied.

Fuma sighed. "Then you can help get Fuka to the evac sight with everyone else then."

Nysa nodded before walking over to the still hammered and wobbly Fuka taking a arm over her shoulder to prop her up.

"Ugh tha... thanks," she thanked as she was helped out the door.

Lulu and Mista then started to lift the still unconscious Reinhart and the others onto their shoulders carrying them out while Fuma stared at Ellen in the corner.

"Aren't you going to help?" Fuma asked feeling that something was wrong with her.

"I'll be fine here. If they come I can fly away," Ellen replied in depressed tone.

Fuma feeling a little stressed rubbed the back of her head before taking a few steps towards Ellen. "Look I don't know what's up with you but I don't have time to deal with it. Just stay alive and run if you have to."

Fuma then left closing the door behind herself leaving Ellen and Mason (still laying on his cot) alone in the building. A few silent moments later the door opened slowly as Estella walked in followed by her undead maid's.

"Well this is interesting," Ellen looked up hearing a cheerful voice she didn't recognize.

Standing before her wearing a smile like a child that had found the most interesting thing ever was a 15 something girl with blond hair and red eyes accompanied by a few maids all with darkened skin and red eyes.

"Who are you... you should evacuate with everyone else," Ellen said with disinterest in her voice.

Estella walked to the center of the room keeping her eyes on Ellen. "My my my. Getting a closer look at you I can honestly say you are the most odd Mamono I have ever seen or ever heard about. The body of a Dragon denoting power. The horn of a unicorn representing Purity. And the feathered wings of angles that normally only the Goddess Itia and her servant angels would have THAT typify dominion over all below them. You are a stunning beast I give you that," Estella stated bringing a pointed finger to her lips.

Ellen gave Estella a closer look after hearing the odd description of herself. "Your pretty odd yourself what's with that bad skin condition of yours."

Estella replied with a laugh. "Haha, yes well I stayed out in the sun to long and got sunburnt."

Ellen and Estella glared at each other for a few brief seconds before breaking out into laughter much to Mason and the Undead maids confusion. The maids only shared a brief glance and shrug between each other while Mason grumbled at the noise and was about to yell at the two girls just as they stopped.

"It's been... Hah... a while since I had a good... haha laugh at something... ha," Estella struggled to say as she and Ellen's laughter calmed down.

"My name s Ellen, What's your name?" Ellen asked as Estella as their eyes met.

"Estella yours?"

"Ellen. And What are you exactly?... a vampire?" Ellen asked.

"Hah, actually yes I am a Vampire," Estella answered while Ellen just adopted a look of intrigue.

"I thought vampires couldn't go out into the daylight without being turned to ash?"

Estella almost started laughing again before stopping herself. "Fufu! you believe that old wives tell the Humans tell themselves. We vampire's aren't affected by anything like that at all."

Feeling more intrigued Ellen asked another question. "So what kind of undead are you then?"

Estella adopted a exaggerated thinking pose for a split second Before answering.

"Well as a quick bit trivia us vampires are actually descended from Humans who were... envious of the immortal Elves and their great beauty. These humans sought to alter themselves so they could gain the same immortal bodies and unending beauty Elves had. There were a lot of... terrible experiments... that were used to develop the proper kind of spell and body altering process. Which when completed was far beyond any other undead spell like the kind that create zombies or undead lich's." Estella explained with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"We Vampier's are also not that hungry most of the time and just so you know we actually feed on the magical energy held within a living beings body meaning we can feed on any form of life with magical energy in them. But humans are our favorite. Mainly because their the most convenient. Unlike Mamono and most other none human races they don't put up a difficult fight and aren't immune to our hypnotizing ability that lets us get in close to feed. They also make good servant's. Also now that I think about it, we Vampire's do still need biological material to grow or heal our wounds and... why and I explaining all this to you?"

As Estella thought over her openness with the odd Mamono Ellen took a step closer to her. "I don't know maybe because i'm listening to your interesting explanation and so far your version of vampires are the most interesting kind I've ever heard about."

"My version? "Estella exclaimed in surprise placing a hand on her chest. "There is only one type of vampire in this world from what I know?." Estella said pointing one index finger up while feeling like she had missed a sad joke somewhere. "Tell me where and why did you get that idea from?" placing her hands on her hips.

Ellen thought for a few moments about what she should say noting the number of ears that would hear her but after a short deliberation decided it didn't matter at the moment and felt for some reason that this girl was trustworthy.

"Well... to put it simply I was..." Ellen started as she did a quick explanation of herself being born on Earth and then awakening as a Valkyrur and everything that happened after words with the Zerg, the war, the Tal'darim, Azrumath. Continuing on to the current point in time where recently she was reborn as a Mamono from the womb of the All Mother then arriving at the village and making friends with Mista, Lulu and Rose.

As Ellen finished her little explanation Estella and her undead-maidens were all agap and still as statues standing in astonishment and surprise at the unbelievable story they just heard.

"Well!" Estella said letting out a held breath. "You win. You story is far better them mine is." she said with a somewhat deflated look waving her hand about.

Ellen shrugged. "I haven't even heard what your story was in the first place. You said vampires are former humans that had been transformed but you never said how you became one yourself?"

Correcting herself Estella face palmed for a brief moment shaking her head before turning back to Ellen giving a dry laugh. "Haha. I guess your right. Well there really isn't much to my story." Estella said as her voice changed to a more melancholy tone. "I... was a princess once upon a time... around 200 years ago and... when I turned 14 I lost my parents in a... 'so called accident' and then after a year of preparing to become the next queen of my country... a... another nations agents attacked the castle. Killing my guards and forcing me to flee."

Estella made a dry humorless laugh as she looked like she was about to cry but still she recounted the painful memories. "A lot of good that did me. The next day I and my horse... the last thing I had from my life as a princess was run of a bridge by a group of random bandits. And then... HE found my drowned battered corpse down river. The man who I now call father. As is the custom of us vampires when one of us change's a human into one of our own kind. There's not much else to say really."

After hearing Estella's sad story Ellen felt a tiny tear run down her check which she quickly wiped off before taking in a deep breath that puffed up her chest and exhaled. "Thanks for that Estella." Ellen said with a faint smile as she felt nothing but empathy for the foremor princesses and the utter BS of her situation. "I've been moppy since seeing what this piece of trash did to some poor kids and I needed a good talk to clear my head. So thanks."

Estella glanced at the stone faced man in the cell staring back at her on the cot. "He certainly has the eyes... and smell of a killer."

"I'm leaving to protect this village," Ellen stated turning to the door but stopping as her hand grabbed the door-nob before turning back looking Estella in the eyes. "Can I have your word that you won't tell anyone about me having contact with the All Mother."

Estella smirked understanding Ellen's meaning. "Oh don't worry my lips are sealed."She replied waving a hand. "I'll even get rid of the witness. Im feeling a bit hungry anyway."

Ellen smarked back before leaving out the door. As soon as the door closed Estelle and her undead maids turned to Mason in the cell.

Definitely Mason stood up and stood his ground smiling back. "If your going a do it do it flaty."

The undead maids accompanying Estella gasped in surprise and fear as the man made the one insult which over their long years of service have learned was the absolute last thing one would want to say to her face.

Estella's head dropped as she started laughing with repressed rage.

"Ah, ha. Ah, ha. Haha. What was that you just said!" she asked as she pounded a fist into her other hands open palm gritting her teeth.

Not shaken a bit at the vampire girls tone of voice Mason replied again as he never feared death even as he delivered it to so many others. "I said. You have. A flat chest. Fang face."

Estella was silent as she raised her head with a unnatural and creepy smile on her face. "Oh... I get it. In that case. I think i'll..." In a instant Estellas tone became far more hostile and blood thirsty while still remaining calm sounding as her eyes turned to a glowing red while her fangs and finger nails grew in size and sharpness. "CUT EVERY MUSCLE CONNECTING YOUR BONES. BREAK THOSE BONES BEFORE SKINNING YOU AND THEN TEAR OUT EVERY ORGAN THAT YOU CAN LIVE WITH BEFORE I SUCK OUT EVERY LAST DROP OF YOUR HAVE.

At the sudden and intense feeling of blood lust emanating from Estella Mason fell back on his ass as the little girl casually bent open the steel bars to the cell and stepped in. As the carnage was about to begin the two undead maiden's turned away closing eyes and placing their hands over their ears just as a high pitched scream called out from behind them.

Meanwhile outside Ellen heard the girlish scream like in movies when a guys balls were hit.

Not caring about the fate of Mason Ellen turned her focus up to the sky while spreading out her wings. With one strong leap and a well timed flap of her wings Ellen leaped high into the sky and kept raising higher until she could see the whole village end to end.

Ellen then used her wind magic to hover while spreading her upper arms out with her lower arms clasped together as if in prayer but she was far from prying to any god. Instead she was focusing all her mind on her senses. All along the dragon horns running along the sides of her head hundreds of tiny pores opened up wider than ever before as Ellen's magic sense's were pushed to it's limits.

All at once Ellen's world became a thousand times more detailed as she perceived everything around her for a few miles. The trees, the birds, the small lizards scurrying under a rock buildings, people, fighting. The flashing of blades and spilling of blood combined with the swirling storm of emotion and desire to win and survive.

Eruabella sensed a powerful individual expand their range of perception along with Faynar who up on the mountain opened his eyes.

 _"Finely something interesting. Is that the prophesied one?"_ he thought giving a fanged smile.

As she watched from afar Ellen perceived Fuma and her militia fighting with everything they had against a numerically superior foe. Both sides were caught in a brutal melee battle that had already killed a few defenders and many more attackers who were forced to push hard into the defenders well made lines of defense that had the formation of a well trained and experienced leader behind it's strategic sensibility.

Even while she sensed the battle Ellen also sensed the presence of two powerful individual's. But they were holding back for now so she decided to focus on the problem at hand.

The battle was made all the more brutal with the addition of ranged magic casters that sent flurries of elemental attacks consisting of fireballs, lighting bolts and ice shards at the defenders and the defenders returned fire in kind back at the attackers. How ever the attacking Blades mages had the advantage as they had multiple point's to attack from while the defenders only had one point of ranged counter attack that was was slowly being bet back and whittled down.

Ellen focused in on the melee battle preciving Musa, rampaging about the frontline of the battle field bashing and impaling one foe after the other with her partly crystallized bladed arms holding her own even as her enemies charged at her, but still Ellen could sense that Musa's movements were getting slower from the constant attacks she was both giving and taking from all the enemies attacking all at once. Despite holding the front line almost virtually by herself she would be defeated sooner or later.

Focusing to the left flank Ellen sensed Fuma with some of the militia officers that had been with her when she and Ellen had first met. The twins Arch and Nash and the wolf girl Luna, Ellen recognised from just before and the rabbit girl and a few others were all fighting alongside each other. But Ellen didn't sense the cat girl until she focused on the rear lines were the wounded had been evacuated to. She was alive but in bad shape along with nearly thirty others who had differing degrees of wounds that included missing arms or legs sometimes eyes or some degree of severe frostbit, burn or other wound that must have been from a magic spell.

Shifting her perception to the right flank Ellen saw a man dressed in samurai armor of all things leading his own men into battle. The mans movements with his long bladed katana were so graceful and efficient not wasting any movement. It captivated Ellen even as blood and body parts were sent flying from his attacks that seemed to dance around his opponents guard. Every hit was like ten as the men in golden armor died by the handfuls to this one man alone.

Seeing all these different people fighting alongside each other sturred Ellen's mind to see that despite their surface appearance people of any creed or race can and will fight together if given the motivation and purpose. Upon seeing this Ellen was reminded of the past when there was a short lived as it was alliance of Human Protoss and Zerg once upon a time.

And as she continued watching for what had seemed like hours but in reality it had only been a few seconds the defenders numbering just a few hundred all fought together against all odds against a force of almost double their's.

The situation reminded Ellen of the Alamo back on Earth and of the Nazis from World War 2 given the reason the Vekuris Empire was having it's troops attack any and all none human communities in reach. The horrifying memory of seeing Nazi concentration camps on TV for the first time flashed in her head, leading to her own memories of her swarm killing far more people back during the first Zerg war. And that then lead to the in her mind of the four kids that had been tortured by that guy Mason. And in that moment Ellen felt an intense sense of agitation that bordered on anger and fear but was also something more that Ellen couldn't pin down.

The feeling made it harder for Ellen to breath as a intense pressure clinched at her chest and the sweat started dripping from her body. As she felt this a faint glow started emanating from the edges of her skin and scales, slowly becoming more pronounced as a transparent blue aura.

* * *

Back on the top of the nearby mountain overlooking the town far below Fayer watched in growing anticipation as the lone floating finger started exhibiting signs of awaking their aura. Something which few others in this world other then gods have accomplished. Although a few Mamono have developed such a thing in the past it is not something that happens very often.

Fayner gave a fanged grin as he continued to observe from afar. "Things keep getting more and more interesting."

* * *

Even thought she had only a few days to get to know these people the thought of them dying made Ellen feel a extreme agitation. But she felt even more agitated at the thought of her not being able to do anything about it. "I... am not weak... nor am I afraid... and i'm certainly not." Ellen said to herself as she lowered her head reassessing her own thoughts. "GOING TO LET THESE BASTARDS LIVE!"

At the exclimaton the red half of her personality that represented Ellen's more violent and impulsive side spoke out to her blue half that represented the more cautious and calm side of herself. "Haha. Finally!" Red Ellen said gleefully. "That is something that we..."

Blue Ellen whom was in control of the body continued the thought. "That I..."

Bothe red and blue halves of her soul and mind became synchronised for the first time since their split thinking and willing the same thing for the first time in along time. "Can agree on."

Ellen raised her head but now with Heterochromia one eye now a fierce red and the other a intense blue. Opening her clasped lower hands as she focused on the battlefield far below her.

"No more time to hesitate." With that said she used [Tempest Step] to jet through the air at mach 7 velocities leaving a air shock wave's in her wake as she jetted over and straight down into the center of the battlefield landing with such force that it created a explosion of dirt and debri that sent shrapnel and rocks flying through the air along with anyone close by.

Musa reeling from the shockwave of the unexpected explosion along with everyone else, held her bladed arms up defensively as pits of dirt bounced off her. After the blast had subsided the whole battlefield had gone quite as if the world had ended or something. Musa glanced around at the surrounding area noting that the entire battle had surprisingly stopped from the sudden interruption. Musa glanced around noting that everyone on both sides had stopped fighting and had turned their heads to the source of the explosion closely watching as the smoke and dirt settled.

"What in the name of the gods was that?! " a soldier beside Captain Aster and Lieutenant William stated as both ranking officers and the soldiers around them closely watched the unfolding situation from afar.

As the dust cloud created by the impact settled a swirling vortex of wind blew the rest away growing into a small tornado that grew larger and larger before dispating into nothing. But in it's wake the solitary figure of Ellen was left behind standing in the center of the two armies.

"What the... a child?"

"Who the hell is tha?."

"I don't know a last minute reinforcements haha!"

"These monsters really think a kid is a threat to us."

Ellen sighed at the idiotic comments from the Blades army troops in front of her while the Mercs, Adventurers and Militia behind her watched in silent awe at her grand entrance.

"Ellen what are you doing here?" Musa asked.

"Musa, Fuma." Ellen said sharply making the two of them unconsciously snap to attention. "I'll handle these jokers. You and everyone else evacuate to the wall and hold the line."

The words were orderly and commanding brimming with confidence as if coming from a ruler who had a long time to become comfortable with leading others.

Sensing the seriousness behind her words Musa and Fuma shared a glance at each other before following them. "Everyone fall back to the wall and regroup."

At Musa's order the defenders fell back even as Ellen stood alone surrounded by the enemy army. However some of the Blades soldiers tried taking advantage of the retreat and charged. A moment later Ellen flicked a arm their way creating a a invisible vortex of high pressure wind blades and low pressure near vacuum fields that cut into the attackers formations and gave the defenders time to retreat.

Both sides watched as the bodies of the attempted attackers landed with loud metallic thuds and clanks. The bodies were mostly intact thanks to the high quality magic armor they wore but by the way the arms and legs were positioned and the bodies were silent it was apparent to all that the people in the armor were dead. It was at that moment that everyone's attention was again taken by Ellen who stood with both of her lower arms outstretched.

A moment later Ellen moved one of her larger upper arms towards the attacking army and made a come and get it gesture as she waged her fingers back forth.

In the rear lines Captain Aster and Lieutenant William watched in surprise as the lone child had cut twenty men down in one move and was now goading them to attack her.

"That is no normal opponent," Aster said as he thought of what to do next.

As he thought the defenders mostly consisting of human mercs and adventures with Mamono beastkin militia retreated and regrouped at the hole in the wall forming a new defensive line.

Groups of men and woman some human others beastkin and even a few lizard girls who were in the adventures groups all stopped at the rear lines in the village proper right behind the wall. Some exhausted others wounded and all taking the time to rest and recoup their strength.

"Who the heck is that kid?" A merc asked as he held onto a fellow merc on his shoulder who had a bloody gash on his right eye.

As the wounded man was laid down some others who served as specialized medics and healers helped the wounded man to the ground and started treating the wounds with both badages and magic.

"Whoever it is she looks like a little kid?" a adventure in leather and steel plate armor replied astonished at the sight.

"She may look like a child on the outside..." Ichinose stated as the other two and many others surrounding him Including Musa and Fuma glanced at him before turning their gaze back onto Ellen. "But she's an experienced fighter. I can tell just by looking at her. Her posture and body language give away her experience despite her looks."

Seeing as the enemy was regrouping thanks to the interference of the new arrival Captain Aster decided to use his ranged mages to test the waters with the new and unexpected enemy while also avoiding her in melee"

"Right flank. Left flank charge the enemy and brake their lines and take care to avoid the lone enemy in front. Mages focus fire on the lone target in the front center ranks."

Upon hearing the orders lower ranking officers relayed them to the troops in a matter seconds. The Blades army quickly regrouped and charged across the battlefield as two separate groups that flanked around and ignored the lone enemy in between them while the mages in the rear fired barrage after barrage at their lone target.

Fireballs, Lighting bolts and ice shards flew upon her as she stood definitely between the two armies. _"My allies have successfully retreated to safety."_ Ellen thought while observing the in coming magic attacks. _"Now to deal with the small fry."_

Upon thinking that Ellen took a step forwards and disappeared in a gale of wind just before the barrage of magic attacks struck where she had stood not a second before stirring up a dust cloud that hid the fact that she had evaded the attack at the last second.

Aster and the Blades army had thought the new enemy was hit by that barrage which was why they relaxed letting their guards down. A fact Ellen had counted on and took full advantage of.

In the next moment she reappeared within the ranks of the mages in the rear lines at point blank range startling one mage in a black hooded rob's with a red lining with a fire sigel on the front of the hood.

The mage had but a half second to process what had appeared in front if him before a clawed hand reached out and tore open his larynx. The blood flew spattering on other nearby mages who took a quick glance around seeing that one of their own had his neck half tore out.

"AHHHHH!"

Panic spread in the rear lines.

One of the mages screamed as others followed quickly taking note of the situation. But it was already too late as the one responsable continued her rampage. Slashing biting kicking and tearing through the enemy mages like tissue paper. In only a few seconds the mages of one group had been wiped out and Ellen moved on to the next group and then to the third and finally mage formation. Even before the charging Blades formations arrived at the ranks of Ellen's allies all the enemy mages had been wiped out in less than two full minute's.

Using tempest step once again to fly high above Ellen glanced down at the positions of her enemies and allies forming two orbs of compressed air in each of her lower arms. However Lieutenant William saw this and acted to stop the deaths of his men. In a graceful movement that left little wasted he drew his blade placing it flatly on his other arm for support as his blade aimed at the airborne target and within the span of one tenth of a second extended in a flash towards his target.

Ellen noticed the incoming attack just as it impacted her back but unlike the Bane weapon Mason used the blade William held could only extend as a special attack so the result was it bouncing off the thicker scales on Ellen's back in a flash of sparks and pushing her off course a little.

It changed little as she simply readjusted her position and launched both orbs at the center mass of each army group. Even as they readied for the clash with the enemy once again Musa, Fuma, Ichinose and their subordinates all watched as the orbs landed in the middle of the two troop formations and exploded sending nearly four dozen men flying in all directions including at them.

The unlucky few that landed amongst the Ansta village defenders were quickly cut down while the rest that flew in other directions had all manner of injuries ranging from dislocated joints to broken arms and legs to pulped eyes and fractured ribs. But no deaths.

Landing in front of Musa, Ellen looked at the destruction she had wrought feeling surprised that so many had survived. "I would have thought that the overpressure blasts from the compressed air would have killed most of them?" she said gritting her teeth.

Musa took a few steps forwards standing beside her short time pupel. "Your methods of using the air element is crud... but effective. And as for why they survived the blasts... no doubt it was from the impact force reducing enchantments of their armor."

Ellen glanced at Musa for a brief moment before turning back to the field of men picking themselves up from the explosions. "Oh so I should do this then."

Upon saying that Ellen took two long steps forwards spreading her four arms out wide as she focused on manipulating the currents of air. A moment after the last soldier had stood back up from taking a healing potion to fix his popped shoulder joint the ground in between the two groups of soldiers started a showing sighs of a strong wind gathering.

Eventually it formed into a tornado in the exact spot between the two armies and began sucking up rocks and tree limbs before the vacuum suction forces eventually pulling at the soldiers as the winds rushed passed them. The Blades soldiers all started straining against the powerful winds as it beckoned them to the swirling vortex. Even Captain Aster and William along with the rear guard all started covering their faces from the increasingly powerful winds that started scaring the normally well trained and disciplined horses. Some bucked knocking off their riders and others took off in the opposite direction as the tornado some with their riders still on them.

In a matter of moments the tornado was ten stories tall and soldiers started being pulled across the ground before being sucked up into the twister. One by one they were pulled off the ground and were exposed to the vortexual forces that flung them around and around and around at a breakneck pace. The semi vacuum and rotational forces killing them one by one and before to long all but a hand full of the two troop formations had been decimated.

Captain Aster and lieutenant William his second in commanded were both watching in total astonishment, anger and nervousness as half of their forces had been wiped out in a matter of minutes by a child no less.

Gritting his teeth Aster pulled the rains of his horse trying to settle her down along with others still on horseback. "Wow wow." The horse's started calming down after the fierce winds had scared them into panic. Now that his horse was obedient the captain turned his full attention to the tornado that before his sight dissipated leaving behind a calmness that was eerie and pervasive over the once fierce and loud storm.

"Is it over," Lieutenant William asked no one in particular.

Moments later the bodies of the soldiers that had been sucked up into the tornado started impacting the ground making loud thudding noises as the hit. The rain of bodies continued for a few short moments before ending. Leaving behind a grim example of the new foe the Blades now faced.

Both Aster and William shared a glance as they both realized that none of their normal troops stood a chance against the new opponent.

"I think the two of us should handle this ourselves," Aster said staring at William who nodded in agreement.

"That was impressive. If a little morbid," Musa said as she turned to Ellen. "Your power and control have become quit high for a beginner. But your still only at the level four mark if that little showing was anything to go by." she said smirking.

Ellen surprised quickly turned to her. "Only level four? How high does that leveling meter of yours go?"

Musa shrugged with a huff. "On the leveling scale I gave, humans average are a 3, and 7 verges on the realm of heroes and demigods, most god's average between 8 to 10 with a vaunted 11th level rank that supposedly surpasses the gods. But so far no-one not even the All Mother, Demon lords or any of the gods has reached such a level."

Ellen was floored at the revelation that her little tornado that decimated a large force of troops was only one rank above a normal human.

"Oh common!" Her arm was pointing in exclamation at the foremore location of the twister. "that twister just now had to have been a lot stronger than a spell a normal human could dish out."

Musa placed a hand on Ellen's shoulder. "Sorry to say but while it was powerful you had to strain yourself to maintain it instead of simply casting the spell and not needing any further effort put in. So I give you a 5 on the power scale. Your technique was a 2 however."

Ellen shrunk back lowering her head her pride feeling a little deflated at her so called accomplishment. Musa while giving a harsh assessment of the effort Ellen had given was still impressed that a almost complete ameture had done such a thing. _"If she puts in all the proper time and effort she will no doubt become a level 10 one day and match the gods."_ Musa thought proudly to herself.

The approaching noise of foot falls brought Ellen and Musa out of their thoughts bringing them face to face with two humans that looked like officers perhaps the ones leading this army.

"And who might you be?" Ellen asked in a semi hostile tone as the two men standing before her drew their swords.

"I am captain Aster Regulis Vakorian of the new tenth battalion of the elite Blades of the Vekuris empire."

"And I am his second in command Lieutenant William Nustar Yusen of house Yusen."

"My name is Ellen. This is Musa."

Aster continued. "Although speaking truthfully my battalion was only created a year ago and other then myself and my Lieutenant all the others are just recruits from the regular army. Our new king has decreed that all none humans will be purged from human lands so that a pure human empire free from influence from you monsters can rise and prosper."

Ellen felt even more deflated at her show of power just before now that she has found out that all the soldiers she killed were practically new recruits without much experience and were only a real threat from the high level gear they had as well as their numbers. Ellen then realised the the pattern of xenophobia and recruiting and sending green soldiers into the meat grinder of real combat felt a little too familiar to another certain empire or rather a imperium.

"Hey Captain Aster. Is your new king really tall, baled, clad in blue bulky armor with a upside down C shaped insignia with flanges on the upper left and right edges of the emblem and really hates none human's and says he only serves the so called god emperor of mankind."

Aster flinched at the description that was far too detailed to be a coincidence. "How do you knew my king?" he answered with a question of his own.

Ellen face palmed while Musa and the nearby Fuma and Ichinose felt like they were missing out on something important. "Uhh! it had to be him." Ellen groaned in annoyance at the conformation.

"Still this changes nothing," William said as she took a combat stance. "We will see out duties fulfilled."

"Yes the time for talk had passed," Aster said also taking a combat stance.

Ellen still with her hand still over her face spoke. "So let me get this right. You two are willing to kill people just because this new king of yours ordered you to," Ellen spoke in a completely calm and foreboding tone.

"Yes." Aster replied as he charged forwards.

As he sprinted at her and Musa, Ellen gave a wicked grin underneath her hand.

"Fine then." Ellen said dropping her hand revealing a blank face that had a underlying malicious intent behind it while also showing a calm professional mentality highly becoming of someone that has had over two hundred years of experience training and fighting with monsters.

"Ellen!" Musa said as she took a combat stance crystallising her forearms into blades.

Ellen stepped forward's. "I'll handle this. Stay out of my way."

The tone in Ellen's voice clearly gave Musa a warning that she should stay back and just watch what happened next. Ellen continued her onward stride calmly as Aster charged at her. But then just when he was almost in range to strike her he jumped back and raised his blade high above himself and called out.

"All Sunder!"

Asters blade glowed intensely with an etheric light that made the magical energy of the surroundings shake and shudder as the heavy and forcely energy gathering within his blade vibrating as it gave off a golden glow. In the next instant the blade swung down releasing its bound up energy that when released cleaved a groove into the landscape that was a fifty feet wide and at least a few miles long as it's end was not discernible.

Giving a satisfied smile with a few breath's of exhaustion from the expenditure of power Captain Aster stood back up looking at the devastation he had wrought. "That was a little to easy? I would have thought she..."

Aster's thoughts were interrupted by a clapping noise to his right. Turning to find the source of the noise he found Ellen Musa and an intacte village. "What? but I. How?" he stammered as he couldn't wrap his brain around what had just happened.

"Captain they rotated the ground below your feet just before you attacked," William explained as his captain regained his focus staring daggers at Ellen and Musa as Ellen explained.

"That was a nasty surprise," Ellen said wagging her finger with a grin. "But after all the battles and sparring matches i've been through anticipating when someone is going to pull a attack like that at point blank range where it would be impossible to dodge or block is second nature to me at this point. The first thing that gave you away was the fact your a experienced fighter who would never just come running at their opponent at least not without a trick or plan up your sleeve. After I figured that out all I had to do was rotate the ground below you feet and redirect the attack. The timing was close but it worked in the end."

Aster growled at the fact he had wasted his once a day attack that had always been his trump card that he had always relied upon to eliminate any opponent that was normally to much for his normal abilities or tactics in a situation that was troublesome like the one he was currently in. He didn't want to lose any more troops and he wanted to end the current conflict in one attack which was why he had used it first but now it was no more than a mistake made before this seemly abnormally powerful child.

A child that had made him waste it in a simple manner. Aster had planed on eliminating all of the remaining resistance elements in one attack but now that's ruined. It was then Aster realized that in order to pull off that miracle Ellen had to have more than one element under her control. And if that wasn't enough she didn't need to use a incantation like mostly every other magic user needs to do other then monsters that have power over a particular element. Realizing this Aster then knew that this Ellen was far more of a threat then he had first realized.

"Your a tricky one Ellen. I'll have to be more careful next time." he said retaking a combat stance again.

"We've both already seen each others trick's so let's decide this with combat skill alone." Ellen yelled as she and Aster charged at each other.

"GLADLY" Aster yelled back as his blade clashed against Ellen's draconic armor plating.

* * *

Everything was dark. He felt calm and warm and for a moment he couldn't even remember who he was and then a flash of memory lead to his first memory of his third birthday. Is parents were both at the table along with many other people in fin clothing all looking at him as he blew out his candles. The memory then moved ahead a few years and he was on horseback riding with his father through a open field. Another memory a few years later then showed three young girls standing before him with hairless tails of pink skin with rounded animal ears on the sides of their heads. They were in simple sackcloth garments and were filthy.

His parents were in the same room talking to a man about buying them. The girls all looked scared and afraid while the adults talked. He however just walked up to them and said. "Hello my name is Reinhart. What yours?"

"Nina."

"Rina."

"Momo."

They answered shyly.

It was at that moment he regained consciousness. His eyes opening to the blue sky above. Reinhart felt fine despite the last memory he had of being at that evil man's terrible mercy. Once all awareness came back he shot up seeing crowed's of people all around him most human but many others Mamono of differing types.

"Momo? Rine? Nina?" he shouted fearing for their lives.

"Master were here." A feminine young voice replied behind him.

Turning around Reinhart saw his three maids and only friends sitting on their knees behind him. "Lay back down master." Rina said as she placed a hand on his shoulder laying him back down on her lap.

"Wha? how? where are we?" he stammered.

"Your in the demon lord's domain little one," Sinithie said as she moved closer to him followed by Mista and Lulu. With Nysa and Fuka in the back round talking to some other people.

"Who are you?" Reinhart asked the new faces.

"My name is Sinithie, this is my friend's Mista and Lulu."

"Did you save us?" Reinhart asked.

This prompted the Harpy Lamia and Slime to share a look between each other.

"No we weren't." Mista said explaining. "The one who saved you was someone else. Another friend of ours named Ellen. She defeated that guy and found that magic key. And Nysa over there healed you four."

Reinhart felt relieved as he looked at his three maids sitting over him whom were all subjected to horrible things by that man. And now he learns that it was all in the past now.

"Can I thank this Ellen. I must repay her for saving the four of us?"

Mista, Lulu and Sinithie all looked unsure of how to reply.

"She's fighting right now," another voice spoke. "Shes fighting to protect us right now," Fuma said as she and Musa approached with Nysa behind them.

"Who is she fighting against?" Reinhart inquered.

"The war god Fayner," Fuma replied with a fearful and concerned expression on her face.

* * *

A object flew into the town slamming through building after building at such high velocity the impact created a small crater. The dust settled revealing Ellen in small crater in the remains of a building. She was bruised and severely beaten with her wings and tail missing and her white unicorn horn broken off half way. She coughed up a spat of blood as she stared definitely at the tank sized white and gold Lion casually walking towards her through the trail of destruction she had made as a flying projectile.

"Is that all you got OH chosen one!" Fayner said mockingly as he drew closer with each step.

Ellen's breathing was labored but despite having nearly all her bones broken she focused her power greatly speeding up her regeneration. In just a few seconds her bones had all reset and healed and her wings and tail started to quickly grow back as she shakenly stood back up. "That... *weak breathing* all you got ugh."

* * *

 **Earlier**

Aster swung his sword at Ellen, his blade entering her chest but a split second later her form faded. Realising it was a after image left behind by her high speed wind evasion magic. Relying on his instincts he ducked down while spinning around and slashed catching Ellen in the mid section but this to faded as a after image. Soon after Ellen's after images started appearing all around the captain as he quickly shifted his strategy to keep her from attacking on all directions.

With a raised blade he said a quick earth incantation, producing a thick three sided square earthen wall surrounding him with a roof leaving only one of the sides open. A few moments later Ellen stopped in front of the single open side left for her to attack from and charged in. Aster was quick to use a one time use magic item that took the form of a wood token and threw it. Ellen sent a air blast at it but instead of it being destroyed it instead made a barrier that encapsulated Ellen in a barrier. Aster smiled as the barrier shrunk in size until Ellen was holding the transparent walls back.

Feeling confident that he had won Aster threw another wood token into the barrier which was made to be one way so things could enter but not exit. The second token created another barrier around the first that strengthened it and pushed at Ellen's arms and legs until they bent at unnatural angles and turned to jelly?

"What!?" Aster exclaimed as his second called out to him.

"Captain watch out they switched."

Upon hearing that Aster had his head on a swivel looking all around but saw nothing. Then the barriers exploded freeing Ellen. Aster was knocked a few meters back by the blast. He held his arms up to protect his eyes from the fine sand and dirt flying about. Moments later he spied Ellen looking at him with a big grin on her face.

"A simple trick such as that fooled him," Musa said separating from Ellen who had her real arms and legs tucked in covered by the liquid body of Musa.

"I guess the Blades aren't as smart as I gave them credit for," Ellen said as she and Musa separated.

"But but how?" was his only reply.

Ellen walked towards him. "First of all I knew you were desperate when you put up that stone wall and since you couldn't see through it I took a few seconds to pick Musa up and lay a trap for you by letting her cover my body. That barrier of yours was a surprise but not unbeatable. Lucky for me I gathered a air barrier around myself and Musa as a shield just in case. I just expanded the air shield to break your own barriers."

Aster gritted his teeth as he stood back up. "I thought you said this was just a battle of skill between the two of us?"

Ellen spread out her wings as she continued walking closer to him while she talked staring intently into his eyes. "I never remember making a promise for a dual like that with rules or limitations for our fight. And besides using ones brains to out smart their opponent is a skill also is it not."

"Your a little cheater you know that," Aster retorted as he drew another token from his belt pouch only for his arms to be restrained by tentacle's of water. "What!"

As soon as he exclaimed in surprise it was too late as all of captain Asters body was enveloped in a blob like barrier of water. Ellen taking the opening sent her arm and flattened clawed hand thrusting into his midsection between the armor plates. The captain screamed out as the scaled hand was pushed between his organs further up into his torso to his heart where Ellen grasped his heart.

"Just so you know," Ellen spoke in Musa's voice. "you sealed your fate once you turtled in that stone wall. A static defense will always crumble before a constant attack. You just made the mistake of thinking this battle was all about the physical and not the psychological."

With that last statement Aster Regulis Vakorian knew he had been beat. The Musa from before was a fake who's form was just water and words were were just ventriloquism threw magic air manipulation. Realising she had not only deceived him once but twice. The first being the whole going back to get Musa in the moment after he had put up the stone wall. And the second was that she was only able to use two elements.

"How many elements can you use?" He asked weakly as he felt his own heart in a ironclad vice grip.

"Earth, Wind, Fire, Water."

Aster gave a deep chuckle as he heard the last one, "So that Musa from before was just to keep me distracted and focused on you while you created a water barrier behind me."

"Yep. It was a on the spot tactic based on your own moves."

In the next instant Ellen squeezed her fist tight pulping the vital organ.

Dispelling the water she had gathered Ellen sighed a breath of relief as she exited the stone box. Outside she meet the last remaining major threat as William stared at her blooded hand.

"You defeated the captain," the blond man said.

"Yeah you up next."

The man gritted his teeth in anger of not being able to ade his superior officer. "Don't think i'll be as easy monster."

Ellen sighed shacking her head side to side. "Your right about me being a monster but..." Ellen instantly charged at him in a full sprint.

Reacting to defend himself William extended his blade forwards ten feet and thrust with his arm but instead of dodging or blocking Ellen simple turned around letting the blade impacted her thicker armored scales along her spine like before. The blade bounced off causing Willam to rebound from the transfer of kinetic force through his own blade.

And in that instant when his balance was off Ellen used tempest step to get in point blank range grabbing him by the neck with her clawed finger tips and rotating her arm tearing out a circular chunk in his throat. Reaching for his heavily bleeding neck that now made gargling noise William took a single step forwards and collapsed from the sudden drop in his blood pressure.

The remaining Blades forces in the forest lost their moral seeing as their ranking officers and strongest fighters were now dead. They were about to bolt and retreat when Ellen turned her gaze towards them. But in that moment their formations were caught in a hail storm of lighting bolts while a massive white and gold Lion landed among their formations crushing some under foot and those that remained were fried to a crisp by the golden lighting that almost radiated off of the the white and gold Lion.

* * *

Eruabella remained standing in front of the gate linking the Demon Lords lands with her current location in which she stood. She felt that the God of war had finally made his move and knowing his strength she knew she was the only being that could stand a chance of at least holding him off for a time even though she was a heavenly knight and one of the strongest of her kind in the world.

"The people are safe so I should at least save Musa and her allies if not the town itself."

Eruabella stated before jogging onwards with haste.

* * *

"Everyone evacuate get out of here?" Musa yelled in a panic.

Following her orders all of the militia, Merc's and Adventures gathered up their wounded and flead knowing when to avoid such dangers such a god let alone the god of war.

"What about you?" Ichinose asked remaining behind.

"It looks like Fayner's focus is Ellen given that he's eyeing her. So it's not likely he's after anyone else. Just to be safe you should be get out of here."

While the others were talking behind her. Ellen stared at the new arrival as the charred and smoking bodies of the humans laid at his feet. The tank sized Lion's fur was mostly white with golden claws and a mane of golden fur around his neck and on the tip of his tail. A impressive being by any standards but what made Ellen shrink back in fear was the unbelievable amount of magical energy radiating off his body. It was far more than she had ever sensed before and was a flood that forced her to close the magical pours along her dragon horns as it was painful for her to keep them open and was like staring directly into the sun.

 _"Is this one of the powerful presences I felt before? He's way more powerful than back when I first sensed him. Must have been suppressing his power to hide."_ Ellen thought before asking the Lion. "Who are you?"

Giving a growled laugh Fayner grinned. "I am Fayner god of war. You are impressive for a little one. I feel as though you will provide me with a great amount of entertainment. That is if you survive."

Ellen felt as though she were moving in slow motion as the lion moved right in front of her in the next instant. Moving on instinct Ellen used tempest step to move away just as Fayner's paw impacted the ground where she was standing a mere fraction of a second ago. Ellen then moved into counter attack launching multiple air blasts. They impacted the lions face and shoulders but nothing.

Fayner just gave a fanged smile as he once again moved in front of Ellen with his fanged maw open to swallow her in one gulp. Ellen used tempest step again to move out of the way just as the mouth closed. Holding her arm's out she compressed a dense ball of air in one hand and lite a flame in the other combining wind and flame for the first time she sent a compressed air blast ignited with fire. The result was a fuel air explosion at point blank range that sent Ellen flying back a ways. But as the dust cleared Fayner still stoon looking unphased and without a scratch.

"Damnt! why aren't my attacks doing anything?" Ellen exclaimed as she again tempest stepped into close range to punch one of Fayner's eyes but upon connecting she felt like she had punched solid steel. "What the hell?"

In the next moment Ellen tempest stepped over the lion's shoulder but noticed Fayner's eyes were still on her. "Too slow." Fayner said in a deep bass tone as he wiped his tail around.

Ellen only had time enough to bring her tail and wings over her body to guard herself and in the next instant a tail struck sending her flying faster than the speed of sound so fast that she created a shock wave through sheer force of her velocity and could not even move from the air pressure she was subjected to.

* * *

 **Now**

As Ellen stood there slowly regenerating the damage she had taken, the second powerful presence she had sensed before, approached her from behind. "And who are you? You with goldy over there?" she said without turning around.

Eruabella walked passed Ellen standing between her and Fayner. "Fayner what business do you have in a place like this. Beating up on such young and weak children is highly unbecoming of the god or war," she said in a casual tone.

Fayner stopped twenty meters from Eurabella both of them sharing an intense stare as Faynere spoke in a deep voice. "My sister Itie had a revelation that some odd looking Mamono would be the so called chosen one who would save the world from a great shadow that would come from beyond the sky. I was merely testing this little cub who seems more then a match for the description given."

"As always you jump to fighting with whatever excuse you can think up." Eruabella stated shaking her head side to side. "Just like those Humans you have worshiping you."

Fayner gave audible growl of displeasure. "If you want to become a crisp pile of ash that can be arranged snotling."

Both Eruabella and Fayner gave each other a death stare while Ellen observing their little stand off just sighed while winding her arms feeling them regain their proper range of motion after being shattered. "Would you two kindly explain what the hell your talking about?"

Eruabella gave a glance at Ellen before returning here gaze back to Fayner. "Long ago one of the Demon Lords gave a prophecy regarding the end times of our world. It stated in the book she left behind that a being fitting your description would unite all the worlds races and defeat a great threat that would come from beyond the sky."

Ellen stood there listing to the dribble she was spouting not believing what she had just heard. Then Fayner and Eruabella were both surprised when Ellen broke into laughter falling to the ground holding her side's "Haha, Ah hahaha ah...*deep breath* HAHAHA!"

Both Fayner and Eruabella started at Ellen as she continued laughing neither one being prepared for such a reaction. When most people are chosen for some great undertaking or task they usually become surprised and fearful of the weight of their new responsibility. They don't become hysterical and laugh uncontrollably.

Snarling in displeasure Faynere stared down at Ellen. "What's so funny mongrel?"

Also feeling that her behaviour was disrespectful if not infuriating given the serious subject matter Eruabella also asked why she was laughing. "Why are you finding all this to be so funny all of a sudden?"

Ellen calmed down slowing and after a full minute stopping her laughter before standing back up and wiping her teared up eyes. "Ah ha. Ah ha. Uh well to... ha. Answer you question I ah, dont give a flying *uck for any and all prophecies in general. The idea of someone being chosen to do something hundreds of years after someone else say's they will just... rubs me the wrong way." Ellen then looked both of them in the eyes glancing from one to the other. "In my own opinion things like that are annoying and stupid. I'd rather accomplish my own goals through my own effort and choice not because some stupid book or prophecy said so."

Eruabella shrugged and gave a slight laugh herself after hearing that explanation. "Haha. I fully agree with you on that young one."

Ellen shot the Eruabella a stare. "I'm over two hundred year old."

Eruabella shocked at the response apologized. "Sorry... Ellen I apologize. for my rudeness."

"How do you knew my name?"

"Our mutual friend Musa told me about you. My names Eruabella by the way."

"Ohh."

Being patient Fayner let the two balather for a bit before interjecting. "Enough talk let's return to our fight."

Upon the great lions threat Ellen took a combat stance and got a question stuck in her head that she knew Eruabella could answer. "Hey Eruabella I hammered this guy with some powerful attacks before but he didn't even flinch. I could understand having a powerful defense but he wasn't even scratched?"

"Gods have a ability called Aura that negates the blows of any being less powerful than them."

"What!" was Ellens reaction. "That's cheap. I know i'm not powerful enough to injure this guy. Are you strong enough to fight him?"

Eruabella gave a sigh as she answered. "No. Im a rank below him so I can not injure Fayner but I can at least delay him so you can escape."

Ellen though through her options remembering another of her abilities granted to her by the All Mother.

"Eruabella from a level system from one to eleven what rank are you and Fayner?"

Fayner started generating golden lighting in preparation for a full force attack.

"I'm a 9 while Fayner is a 10." Eruabella replied giving Ellen a grin with her answer.

"Then we can beat this guy but when I give you the signal you going to have to hit him with everything you got."Ellen then turned to the glowing and lightning charged lion god. "Hey Fayner you wanted a fight then just wait a bit longer and you'll get your fight.

Ellen then upon seeing the grin on Fayners face closed her eyes and searched out her power that lay deep within her. It was an intrinsic part of her being and she needed it now and after a few seconds of looking inwards she finally found it. A ability that allowed her to raise the power level of whom ever she views as a allie. She had thought such an ability would prove useful is she found allies in this new world and her foresight had proven correct.

Ellen opened her heterochromic eyes and activated the ability she sought. "Trumpeter!" she called out as a white pulse of energy shot out from her body and reacted to Eruabellas presence making her too glow white as her powers were increased by two level now being 11.

"Ahh! this power it feels like im going to burst."

Receiving Eruabella's body rippled with power as the red markings on her left side expanded covering her whole body following her humanoid forms curves. Understanding that this was the signal Ellen spoke of and the heavenly knight struck with a full force uppercut whose speed was a good fraction the speed of light and the reactive air shock wave from the impact radiated outwards blowing away half the town as Fayner was launched upwards into the sky disappearing from view.

"Who!" Eruabella stated in astonishment of her new power as she looked at her own smoking fist.

Meanwhile Estella and her maids had ducked onto the floor of the Militia HQ after hearing that explosion.

"We should leave my lady!" One undead maid said in haste.

Taking her hands off her head and standing up Estella agreed. "Maybe your right." She glanced down at the dried out husk of Mason laying on the floor.

"I'll make sure it's safe ma lady," one of the undead maids spoke as she opened the door revealing a blast rounded crater just a few dozen meters away from the building and Eruabella standing in the center off in the distance. Soon after Estella came up and looked out as well her mouth a gap at the destruction.

"Whaaaaat!"

* * *

Hours later Ellen sat in the home of Gerald and Musa having recovered fully after having something to eat.

"So these magicite crystals are extremely valuable," Ellen said as she sat around the table with Musa, Gerald, Guma and Eruabella who was normal again.

"Yes they are," Gerald replied. "We found a vain of the black antimagic rock commonly called world bones a year ago in the deepest part of our mine and ever since we have been slowly grinding our way through it in hopes of striking it rich."

"It would certainly be a boon to our village." Fuma spoke. "Especially after half of it was wrecked by the fight with Fayner."

Eruabella now back in to her normal half humanoid slime form held out her hand. "Sorry for the destruction. But it could have been a lot worse if not for Ellen's ability."

Gerald waved a hand. "Now. Now. That couldn't have been avoided and what's done is done. But miss Eruabella I must say it would be quite an honor if you could help us find buyer' for our new resource."

Eruabella gave the cunning old man a grin of respect for his boldness for asking her and business savvy. "Oh i'm sure there are more than a few buyers on the eastern continent that would give their right arm for a secure and fresh vain of Magicite crystals."

"Did someone say they found a vain of magicite crystals?"

Everyone turned to the door seeing Estella in the doorway accompanied by her undead maids. "From what I hear there hasn't been a newly opened mine for that stuff in well over a century." Estella stated as she walked closer stopping beside Ellen. "My nation the Kingdom of the Night will pay top price for even a few pounds of fresh magicite."

Gerald nodded. "Hmm I see. And you will introduce us to some of your nations buyers I see."

"Naturally, But on one condition," Estella stated holding a finger up.

"What do you want?" Fuma asked.

"Not what but whom," Estella replied turning to Ellen.

"I'm not a thing that can be traded or bought," Ellen stated in a low but very hostile tone directed at Estella.

Estella brought up both of her hands waving. "No. No of course not. I only wanted you to come with me to my nation."

"The Kingdom of Night," Eruabella said. "It's a entire nation of Vampires' if i'm not mistaking. Why would you want with Ellen to go there for."

Estella giggled a bit. "Fufufu. That's obvious. To unlock her true potential of course."

Ellen sighed lowering her head. "And here I was thinking you wanted to taste my blood or turn me into a vampire," Ellen spoke sarcastically waving a hand.

Estella turned to Ellen with a serious look in her eyes. "I know all about how you single handedly defeated two high ranked officers of the Blades and that ability you used to buff Eruabella up to the legendary 11th level that allowed her to send Fayner THE GOD OR WAR flying into the sky off to who knows where. It would be foolish for you to stay here in this backwater village. If you want to unlock four full potential then you should come to my kingdom and train."

Ellen was slightly annoyed at the attitude Estella had while on the other hand her proposal was hard to pass up. And she thought about it some more. "Let me think about it."

Ellen then sat up and left leaving Estella to sigh at the unsatisfying reply. She left Gerald and Musa's house and walked passed the mine to the village where the people had all returned to. The Mamono refugees were helping out with removing the destroyed buildings and the reconstruction work already picking up the pieces of their lives and moving on. It seems the refugees most at least had decided to stay in Ansta and help out with the rebuilding while the rest stayed in the eastern continent when they all had traveled through Eruabella's gateway spell.

Ellen continue her walk through town passing many people as they worked. Eventually coming to the candy shop Lisa and her grandma used to live at. It had been hit in the explosion that sent Fayner flying and ws just half standing and was a safety hazard. Ellen walked around to the back side where a few Driders and Lamias were pulling rops of webbing the Driders had made that attached to the back of the building, and with a few string tugs they pulled the half building down in a crash of wood and dust accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.

Ellen moved on returning to her Mista's and Lulu's house for some long term rest from the days crisis. Once she reached the door she heard more then two voice inside and quickly discovered why after opening the door. Inside was not just Mista and Lulu but that Lamia friend of Mistas, the human boy and the three mouse Mamono girls she had saved from thet Mason guys torture room.

"Ugh what's going on?" Ellen asked at the full house.

"Oh Ellen just the person we've been waiting for," Mista said grabbing Ellen's hand pulling her in. "I would like to introduce you to our new house guests."

"House guests?This place is barely big enough for the three of us let alone four more people." Ellen replied in protest.

"Oh common." Lulu pleaded grabbing one of the Nine and holding her tightly. "They have nowhere to go and need a place to stay."

The large eyes Lulu was making in no way effected Ellen but she did fell sorry for the your of them. With a heavy sigh she thought of a plan "I could use my earth magic to make a expansion on the house. But there's already little space to place it on this tiny area."

Lulu broke into a wide slime as she thanked Ellen while hugging her tightly. While Ellen freed herself from Lulus grip Reinhart stepped forwards. "Miss Ellen I would like to thank you for saving myself and my searvents," Nina, Rin and Momo gave a thanks of their own followed by a bow.

"Uh your welcome. I'm heading to bed im bet." Ellen replied before walking up the stairs to her the bed room. As soon as her head hit the pillows she lost consciousness and fell a sleep.

A week later and the rebuilding had made significant progress as all of the damaged and destroyed buildings and debri had been removed. The refugees mostly stayed to help except for a few that decided to stay in the Demon Lords lands on the eastern continent. Everyone was pulling their own weight even Reinhart whom turned out to be the son of rich parents that own a shipping company. The two of them were out on vacation in another city when all the conflicts occured. But even if he was a rich noble he helped out his three maids with their work cooking food for the workers that day and night worked to rebuild the town. Cutting down trees and carving them into proper lumber boards which Sinithie helps out with transporting around town to building sights as her own why of being useful.

Ellen worked with Mining Chief Grarurim Ironbane to make proper foundations for the new buildings before the rest could be built. This gave Ellen time to get some advice from the expert miner and earth magic user who was more then helpful if a little grumpy at teaching a ameture. It was thanks to this experience Ellen was able to create the stone expansion on the home her and the others now share as of late.

Ellen had also heard that Lisa and her grandmother had been living with Rose and her family. Since their shop had been demolished they had to find a new source of income which turned out to be a job at Vi's clothing store that had just barely survived the fighting. It also turned out to be a blessing sinch Lena was quit good and sewing and could do the finer work that Vis fingers couldn't finish. Anthony and Vi also started getting more serious with their relationship if only a little bit.

Lisa and Rose got along a little better at school ever since they had started living together and sharing a room. Their still not the best of friends but on the days they hang out with Ellen they seem to hit it off far more smoothly and Reinhart who often accompanies them has started to get more than a little friendly with both girls. Though it looks like he's still at the innocent years of his relationship with the fairer gender.

Estella continued hounding Ellen nealy all day every day for an answer to her proposal. This only made Ellen more hesitant to take her up on her offer but it would be for the sake of Ansta village and would also be a opportunity to improve her abilities and gain more experience in using magic from the best as Estella puts it. But at the same time Ellen feels like her time in the town was not yet up. It was on the morning of the second week since the attack that Ellen left home early before sun up. She made her way to the lake where she first arrived in this world and landed on the beach where she first lade foot on since escaping the pocket dimension prison the All Mother calls home for the time being.

She sat down on the sandy beach relaxing as the water rippled and laped at the shore line. The sounds and light of the reflective water's seemed mesmerising as they reflected the sun's light in gleaming bust's of light as they hit the right angle and became a relaxing melody for the isolated moment.

It was an hour after she arrived at the lake that Ellen sensed a odd presence of a large object descending down from the clouds above. Once it had cleared the fluffy clouds that it's shape became visible. The flying ship looked like a star ship of some make that had three hulls. A upper and lower hulls that were shaped like ovals and the third middle hull that was shaped like a sphere set in side three U shaped structures that were thin but were laid on top of each other with their engines in the ends of the U shape. The middle hull also had two wings extending outwards from the sides of the U structure that were thick and each held three oval shaped structures each with engines on the top and bottom middle and tip of both wings.

As Ellen observed the descending ship the upper oval hull had a longer flatter wider shape while the lower hull had a somewhat shorter but thicker body shape over all and the three hulls looked like they could separate into three independent vessels along with the six smaller oval shaped structures on the wings.

"Great... What now?" she said in a sarcastically tone.

In the next moment Ellen disappeared a flash of Blue-White light.

 **End Chapter.**

* * *

 **Note**

 **The next arc will be a short one placed on Remnant as state before.** **And the arc after that will be after events in the side story [Tails of the Fractal-verse] and it will be Zerg heavy as Ellen** **reestablishes** **her hold over her Swarm and meets other characters** **from previous arcs. It will also serve as a** **prologue** **to the events of starcraft. Ellen is going to change a few things.**


	29. Chapter 29

**Final Arch.**

* * *

 **Chapter 29.**

 **Meetings of Fate and Future.**

* * *

 **Location: Plante Remnant. Northwestern Dragon Continent: Zerg Capital city Atlantis.**

 **Population. Mix of Human and Faunes.**

 **Time frame. Approximately 90 years after previous war with Salams Grimm forces.**

* * *

A bright morning sun raise's over the desert city of Atlantis, light reflecting off the white buildings and concentric rings of lakes shining between the buildings. The multi story oval shaped buildings made from silicate crystals glisten in the light as the population wakes up beginning their day. In the many square buildings that out number the vertical oval ones, Faunas and Human shop keepers come out of their houses opening their street shops and raising the shutters and placing their goods out for the customers to see and pick from; talking greeting each other as they pass in the streets.

Carriage's and wagons of differing types, some with people and others with boxed goods cross over the large arch bridges that span the concentric ring lakes of the city. Some small boats also go out on their blue surfaces to gather fish that have lived in them for generations. Fisherman cast nets and fishing lines out to the waters while other fish from the shore.

Over head view of the citystate of atlantis clearly shows the concentric rings of lakes and buildings. The view zooms in over the royal palace at the center. The palace is a series of two rings of buildings each consisting of three story rounded buildings topped with a dome and stylised statues of people and Zerg.

The view changes again to the palace interior. The architecture very similar looking to Roman construction but was more advanced with elevators and tall buildings and water pump's powered by special Zerg bio-construct's made to replace technology to a limited extent.

In the grand white hulls of the central hull to the throne a group of older men some Human others Faunas all in fine robs walked the halls with some scrolls in hand. They passed many status some of the heros that saved the people of the now long gone nation that once existed a few hundred miles south in a more temperate climate.

The men reached a set of ten foot high and nine foot wide guarded doors protected by some guards and two Alpha Zerglings lying on the floor nearby. The Zerglings opened their eyelid's without moving and eye the old men as they pass. The guards watch as the group of older men present a seal. One guard nods and shortly after the doors behind them open. The group of old men enter and continue on their way to a large throne with red and gold cloth draping over the back walls and on the floor around the white stone throne it'self decorated with the red and gold clothe.

The men stop and kneel while one speaks.

"King Solus we bring gave knews of a increase of Grimm activity in the outer deserts to the north!"

King Solus sitting on his stone throne eyed the mortals with a bored expression.

"This is not that surprising. We have been in a state of cold war with the creatures of Grimm for centuries now with minor to heavy battles now and then. Have new types of them appeared?"

"Yes my king." said one of the older men.

He stands up and walk's closer to Solus handing him a scroll. The king unrolls the piece of paper and sets his sights on the detailed picture of a large snake with two heads. A king taijitu but with bothe heads on the same end of the body.

With a bored sigh Solus looks down the scroll.

"A minor change to the snake head... But this other one."

A second rough picture below the first showed a feather covered humanoid Grimm with large claws and talons on its feet and hands.

"The second Grimm creature is a new flyer type. Last night one attacked one of the outpost fortresses ringing around the nations outskirts. It killed three and wounded ten of our soldiers before being wounded and fleeing."

"A intelligent Grimm? " the king asked.

One of the old men replied. "Yes. We think so."

"At least Salem is trying," said another female voice.

The group of men all looked up and to their left to the second story window where a young girl sat on the window seal one leg hanging off. Her cloths were a black leather leotard with a slit that goes from just above her groin up to her neck collar arms with leg coverings with a transparent silk shawl draped over her shoulders and around her waist.

"It's been such a long time since we were actually challenged to a real fight," The girl said.

She then stood up and leaped off landing on her feet near the throne. Touching down she walked over to Solus pecking him on the cheek with a kiss. Her form had changed over the many years but her nature remains the same. At least the one she shows people.

"Good morning Rain," said Solus to his first wife. "Where are your sisters? their not broadcasting their location?"

Rain turned around leaning on the side of the throne. "Their out having fun tracking the new type of Grimm that attacked that outpost."

"I guess their happy to test out their new weapons." said Rain.

* * *

Meanwhile a few hundred miles to the north west.

At a desert oasis a small spiky lizard skittered on all fours up to a desert tree. It claimed up the thin trunk stopping and resting on a limb large enough for it. Moments later a white Zergling with a passenger on it's back rushed past below followed by another with a passenger.

Rushing full sprint across the sands they reached the foot of a massive stone the size of a city block. They Looked around a bit before moving off to the side. Here they reached a hidden opening and entered. The city block sized stone was almost hollow on the inside revealing a massive cave in side.

"Finally a chance to have a brake," said Numia as she took off the white cloth wrapped around her head showing her white fur covered cat ears and tail poking out from her lower back.

She like the others had changed their looks over the decades. Just for fun.

Yuna followed revealing her blond hair green eyes, pale skin and pink lips.

"It's a good thing we had these hidden checkpoints formed from the large stones lying around the desert. I need a bath."

The two quickly hopped off their Alpha Zerglings and started stripping. Once all their clothes were off they walked over to the large pool of water taking up one sixth of the inside of the hollowed out rock.

"Aah! I feel alive again," said Yuna as her blond hair floating on the water's surface.

"Hmm. You don't think weave become too human do you... Yutorra?" said Numia.

The use of their old Zerg name was telling as to her sisters question.

Yuna raised her arms placing them behind her head relaxing. "No. Weave only adapted to integrate into a common society and be more tolerant of them is all."

"Really! Weave changed a lot over the long decades since we came to this planet. I'm not saying weave became weaker... but."

"You think we shouldn't be so friendly with them."

"I'm not saying that but. Maybe we should keep a measure of separation between us is all i'm saying."

"Huh? Anyway you think that flying Grimm that attacked the outpost is in that old mine?"

"Maybe. The last report did say it flew in this direction," Numia said.

The two Brood queens in disguise linked with a Overlord in orbit and looked at the local map of the area in their minds. The mine in question was once a source of metal ore for Atlantis years ago but had long since been mined dry. A quick look at the map shows that the area has a well under the plateau the mine is in.

"Looks like the mine had a well. Maybe the Grimm are using it?" Yuna said.

"Hmm I don't think they drink or eat. Maybe it's all been a trap to lure us out. We have been on the more aggressive side lately whenever they attack one of our out posts."

Yuna shrugged. "Maybe. But eliminating any incursion force keeps them in their place."

Numia laughed. "Haha. I would hardly call a few Deathstalkers walking through the desert close to the border a incursion."

Yuna stood up walking to the edge of the pool the water dripping of her curvy body and heir. "It would be best for us to never underestimate a opponent especially Salem."

"True," said Numie standing up.

The two dried off and cooked up some food in the nude. Clothes are for humans anyway.

After everyone including the Zerglings was feed they took a one hour rest before continuing. It was near nightfall when they finally reached the Mine. They stopped at the entrance to a large stone plateau. There was a hole bared by metal doors at the base of the stone wall raising up from the sands.

"That's it. I was here once before." said Yuna.

"And remind me; Why again we didn't just warp here?" Numia snarked.

"Well it seems silly to use a warpgate to move just the four of us a few hundred miles when it's meant to move you hundreds of light years," Yuna replied with a smile.

"Dont care. It would have saved time. And the heat stroke I went through." *sigh*

"Let's just scout the place out and get back. And was that a joke?"

"Agreed. And yes. You think I can't make jokes?"

Numia made a half laugh. "Heh! I don't think the world is ready for that. Zerg jokes... yeah no."

The two entered the tunnel into the abandoned mine. Inside a small and once prospering community once lived. Sheltered from the heat and cold of the desert deep inside the rock plateau. The presence of a underground water spring also helped the community flourish. Normally such would be impossible if not for the Zerg. Burrowing Drones carved the network of tunnels out of the plateau in which the humans and Faunas lived and worked until the mine finally closed.

As they walked through the large domed main chamber Numia and Yuna kept their heads on a swivel along with the Alpha Zerglings.

"Why didn't we find another use for this place?" said Yuna.

"We tried but with so many other satellite communities outside the capital that all have their uses we couldn't find the resources to use all of them for a practical purpose," said Numia.

Yuna looked at Numia. "You mean man power right. There are millions of the monkeys in the capital?"

"Really! your using the M word. I thought you were a evolved life form."

Yuna sighed slouching her poster. "It was a archaic word to use anyway. Sorry."

*Skamper*Clatter*

The noise of movement and a loud crash of something metal startled the two making them jump, grabbing onto each other.

"Aaah!"

The two looked at the direction of the noise seeing a fallen metal pot and a giant rat. One of the Zerglings ran over pinning the rat down in one of it's large clawed paws, quickly gulping it down. The Zergling turned back licking its bloody armored lips at the two.

"Ugh?"

Numia and Yuna looked at each other and blushed embarrassed at the fact that a Rat of all things scared them. The two quickly separated.

"Ah! Let's forget that ever happened shall we," said Numia.

"Err yeah. Maybe your were right about that being too close to humans thing. I mean really two Brood queens getting scared of that rat. Hah?" said Yuna.

"Let's just get this over with."

The two brood queens and alpha zerglings continued on their way walking through the abandoned community. Empty buildings carved into the rock lined the main street as scattered objects lay about everywhere.

They came to a intersection splitting into two other curved tunnels. Looking down both paths the Zerglings sniffed the air and then looked left.

"Looks like it's this way." Numia said as she and Yuna followed.

Walking further in for about a half mile they came across a large hollow dome with a ring of elevated buildings around its walls going up two stories and a skylight hole showing the sky at the domes apex. There's was a old crane elevator holding a cage hanging through the hole on metal cables.

"If a flying Grimm was going to stay here it would be in here," said Yuna as she drew her blade.

Numia looked further up at the sky light hole her eyes semi-transparent third eyelid closed allowing her to see through the light glare. Behind them a shadow moved on the old buildings roofs. The noise caught their attention and they all quickly turned around entering combat stance's. The shadow leaped at them baring its claws.

One of the Zerglings jumped at it but the shadow evaded with a flap of it's wings. The Zerglings hit the floor while the other one took it's turn but with a strong kick the winged shadow punted it away into a group of creates.

"Well this might actually be a challenge," said Yuna.

She held her long gun-sword out cocking its revolver like mag on the rear of its frame, loading a dust shell into the infusion chamber. The blade turned red and burst into flames as a red dust crystal infused its energy into the blade.

The winged shadow turned to her and screeched. Yuna ran at her target swinging her blade; launching a wave of flame. The shadow flapped away and landed taking a moment to crouch before leaping higher. Flapping its wings at Yuna it shot out barrages of feather blades.

Yuna back flips three times swinging her flaming blade on the last flip. The winged shadow evaded flying backwards but was stopped when it collided into a building. The bird like Grimm crashed into the building leaving itself open to a attack. Yuna charged two handing her sword at her side. The Grimm got back up spreading it's wings out and sent another bladed feather barrage at Yuna. She dodge rolling away without loosing stride; quickly she got back too her feet and continued onwards.

The Grimm repeated its attacks without landing a single hit on Yuna as she dodged each and every one and deflecting others with her sword. She jumped high sending another scorching blade of fire through the air at the Grimm. It jumped away as he blade of flame extended twenty meters slicing through the building.

"Get back here!" Yuna yealled.

Pointing her blade at the fleeing Grimm she checked the pump action again and pulled a trigger shooting a beam of fire from the barrel. The beam lanced through the Grimms left wing dropping it like a rock. The Grimm landed with a bone braking noise. Trying to stand up it limped on it's broken leg and moments later was slammed in the face with the back of Yunas blade.

"It's a new Grimm alright," she said.

As Yuna keeped her foot on it's head the humanoid bird Grimm cawed in pain.

Numia and the two alpha Zerglings approached surrounding the Grimm.

"Let's take it back so it can be analyzed...?!"

As Numia spoke another one of the humanoid winged Grimm attacked from the skylight. Sensing its approach Numia ducked pulling her own weapons. The two revolver gun blades shinned with reflective sunlight as their triggers were pulled sending two ice dust infused bullets into the head and body of the flying Grimm. Two flowers of ice blossomed at the points of impact and it crashed to the ground. It seems still alive so one of the Zerglings quickly tackled it.

Blades ripped into its wings permanently grounding it. But then yet more of the winged Grimm flew through the sky light attacking with their feather blades.

Yuna and Numia dodged but some of the feather blades hit the two Zerglings but did little damage to their thicker armor. Groups of the Grimm swooped over head circling around for another pass. Numia got back up firing off her twin revolvers sending a barrage of Dust infused 45. cal rounds into the air tagging two of the half dozen Grimm. As they fell out of the air the two Zerglings ripped them to pieces one after another.

It looked like the battle was one sided but then a King Taijitu arrived through one of the other tunnel openings. Its two headed form smashing its way through some buildings that were in the way as it approached Yuna and Numia.

"Great when did that thing show up?" shouted Numia.

She sent a barrage of ice shells slamming into the left head. The ice flowers blossomed across it's head making it recoil in pain and slam into the right head. Both head hissed before refocusing on the cause of their pain.

"Shit!"

Numia turned around and flead while the giant snake charged at her. Close by Yuna sent a wave of flame into a flock of the harpy like Grimm as they pursued her and the alpha Zerglings.

The four Zerg were all running to the tunnel they had came from when the earth shook. Another of the new King Taijitu arrived blocking the exit off with it's massive body.

"Damn well this isn't good," Yuna said she and the Zerglings gathered in a circle.

"Time to split up. Regroup at the front entrance," said Numia as she aimed and fired into one King Taijitu.

Blossoms of ice covered the face of the snake Grimm but quickly stopped as Numia ran out of bullets. She tried reloading but was cut off when a Harpy attacked blind siding her. While she rolled along the ground she snapped her revolvers open dropping the spent shell casings and just as quickly alternated her pistols in each of her armpits grabbing 6 chamber quick reloaders. In two quick motions she reloaded and stood back up while another Harpy swooped at her with it's claws.

"Go!"

The yell sent the others running off while Numia filled the Harpy with ice rounds. Yuna sliced off one of the second King Taijitu's heads opening the way for her and the two Zerglings to escape. Running back through the tunnel she first came from she and the two Zerglings ran at full sprint. The flock of Harpy Grimm gave chase beating their wings and shooting more of their feather blade's at the escapes.

Yuna and the two Zerglings evaded in the tight tunnel and Yuna counter attacked with a flame blade bicesting ten of them in the confined space. The last few Harpies pulled back but stayed in eye shot as the chase continued.

Back with Numia.

Numia jumped out of the way as one of the giant snakes struck like lightning at her. But with her reflexes she easily evaded and counter attacked shooting a barrage of ice rounds into it's eye. The King Taijitu hissed slamming into a building from the pain, demolishing it. Taking the opening She ran onto the snake's body shooting along as she ran to it's tail end. Jumping off she was harassed by a group of Harpies as she ran farther into the massive chamber.

Hundreds of feather blades stuck into the ground just behind her as she ran clearing forty meters in five seconds. Looking around she spotted the crane and elevator coming through the hole in the domes apex. Taking the chance she changed direction and jumped up on top of some buildings remains before jumping again and landing on the elevator. She turned around firing off a barrage of shots before reloading and shooting again. After downing six of the agile harpies Numia took her chances putting her guns way and started climbing the cable as fast as she could.

Her arms pulling and legs pushing as she quickly ascended upwards climbing higher and higher. The two King Taijitu slithered closer to the elevator and crane tilting their heads upwards and flicking their tongues. Noticing them eyeing her Numia grabbed one revolver and aimed carefully shooting off six rounds at six targets. Each one landed in a eye of the giant snakes distracting them for brief moment. But seeing that the Grimm Harpies were coming back around for another pass she switched guns holstering one and switching hands on the metal rope, pulling the other gun.

A six shot barrage sent more of the flying Grimm falling to the ground. With one threat was over Numia holstered her gun and started climbing again. After a few moments of ascending the King Taijitu again looked at her and started spiraling up the thick cable to the apex of the dome. Numia climbed quicker reaching the top of the crane. The two giant snakes losing sight of their target pulled their bodies back down and coiled building up strength up before lunging upwards at great speed through the hole.

Seeing them fly up and out of the hole over her Numia leaped away just before they came down impacted the crane and destroying it. Landing on the top of the plateau Numia landed in a roll looked behind her. The two giant snakes slammed down hard onto the red sand stone surface. They rolled over recovering and quickly started looking around.

Numia reloaded and aimed for their remaining eyes. Ice rounds struck the eyes of the snakes making them pull back hissing in pain as they swayed their heads around to defend from the attack. Numia spent her ammo and again quickly reloaded with a smile. The feeling of slamming a fresh set of rounds into the cylinder just had a different feel to it then a auto mag clip.

Reloading Numia ran back away leaving the nearly blind snakes behind. She ran up a steep stone wall and claimed up to higher ground. One of the snakes still had a eye and it spotted her on the higher cliff wall. It hissed following after her quickly reaching the base of the stone wall. It coiled up and leaped clearing the obstacle. However that was what Numia wanted as it was now seperated from the other King Taijitu.

She had also had the time to ready a special trick.

The one eyed giant snake looked around left then right spotting it's prey on the other side of the area with it's remaining eye. She had her gun blades out aiming at the giant grimm but she wasn't shooting. The Grimm had two thoughts. One the prey was out of ammo or two it was challenging it. But it really didn't care which So it charged at her. The King Taijitu slithered side to side as it rapidly approached Numia.

Closer and closer it came at her as the ice cold air drifted off her twin revolvers. Closing the gap the King Taijitu reared up for one final strike and lunged. It and the ice statue of Numia flew off the plateau falling down quit-a ways before smashing against the sand and rocks below leaving behind a splattering of its black goo blood. Numia looked down from her position on the cliff side hanging front her two gunblades dug into the stone cliff.

"Hoo. That was close... Stupid Grimm haha!"

Numia swung with her legs upwards letting go of her two guns and landed on the cliff side. She tugged on the thin cables connecting her wrist bracers to her pistols pulling them back up to her.

"Now to take out the other one... huh?"

At that moment she heard a rumbling catching her attention. Looking around she ran in one direction and looked off into the distance. At the far edge of the plateau she saw a large force of Grimm gathered and moving out. Their direction if maintained would lead them to Atlantis.

"That's not good! Better find Yuna." **Yuna where are you?** " projected Numia.

The replied was swift.

 **"I'm running for my life to the exit of the mine at the moment!"** she replied.

 **"Yeah well I caught sight of a horde of Grimm heading to the capital."**

 **"That's not good! How big?"**

 **"Big enough to make a cloud of dust the size of a mountain!"**

 **"We've handled raids that big before though?"** said Yuna some sense of nervousness in her mental voice.

Numia felt the same sense of worry. **"That's why i'm worried. Salem knows that a direct attack like this won't work. So somethings up!"**

Numia jumped down from her position sliding down the cliff side while using her gun blades to slow herself down.

 **"Agreed. Let's regroup and head back."** agreed Yuna.

Landing on the hot sand Numia broke into a fast paced sprint her tail wagging as she ran at break neck speed.

Meanwhile in the royal palace Solus and Rain walked across a balcony overlooking the city.

 **"Solus we have a problem!"**

Solus the King of Atlantis felt oddly worried at the fact Numia felt worried and stopped.

 **"If it's about the Grimm army charging at us I know about them."**

Solus was currently linked with a formation of Overseers always on over watch two miles over Atlantis. They could easily see the dust cloud caused by the Grimm hordes charging like so many times before.

Rain listened in on the telepathic conversation..

 **"Then you know we can repel it right."**

Numia looked to her left catching sight of Yuna and the two alpha Zerglings and started after them.

 **"Yeah but that's the problem!"**

Solus took a second to consider the situation and how it relates to previous attacks by Salam.

 **"Your right. She wouldn't be stupid enough to repeat failed methods. Then if that's the case then what's her angle."**

Rain chirped in.

 **"Maybe the Grimm force attacking is a decoy?"**

 **"Then if that's the case wheres the real attack coming from?"** projected Yuna.

At that moment deep underground a group of large spider like Grimm used their legs to dig deep through the sand and rock entering a underground tunnel network of flesh and bone. Once the dirt was out of the way the wall of earth collapsed into a organic tunnel of the Zerg hive cluster underneath Atlantis.

The spider like Grimm retreated and a dozen Seers floated up to the opening and joined their tentacles together; then glowing with a great inner light they opened a portal. The portal instead of usering in more Grimm spewed forth a torrent of water from the sea. Dozens of Zerglings and Roaches rushed the intrusion into their underground home at a frenzied pace but just as they were about to get in range of the Seer's they were hit with the wall of water and swept away.

Solus looked up getting the psi-ping from his forces guarding the hive cluster.

 **"I see now!"** He said both out loud and mentally to the three brood queens.

 **"What?"** projected the three Brood queens.

 **"There are actually two attacks. One underground and the second on the surface. The hive cluster under the city is being flooded by seawater flowing in through a portal some Seers opened."**

 **"That's... really not good!"** Numia projected.

Solus turned in the direction of his real body that of a Behemoth.

 **"Only if I don't do this."** Solus projected.

The ground below the central island of the City near the palace shook like a earthquake and the ground was slowly lifted up wards. People all over the central island were ushered to safety and evacuated by the guards and Zerglings. After five full minutes the Behemoth once buried deep underground for many decades started to break out of it's earthen prison. The ground split and toar and was lifted up higher and higher. Large clumps of earth and tones of sand fell away from the mass lifting into the sky. Leaving behind a equally large hole in the ground.

Solus now with his true body once again floating in the air began to float over the city. All of the many people in the capital city were awe struck by the massive flying creature as it ascended higher and higher. Solus scanned the flooding part of the Hive cluster and found the location of the Seers. They were in the remote tunnel of the Hive cluster just under the streets in the northwest sector of the city. But if they continue flooding the Hive cluster then the city will eventually be flooded as well. And if that happens the civilians will be forced to flee into the desert where the Grimm force that was approaching would pick them off. And even with the army and Zerg forces not all of the people would be spared. It will be a repeat of what happened almost a hundred years ago.

 **"My Empress has plans for this world. As her servant I will not allow you to interfere in that goal,"** said Solus.

The Behemoth aimed his spine cannons at the area the Seers were in calculating the variables of wind pressure gravity and density of the streets, sand and stone in the way as well as the trajectory and velocity. He then charged the spines rounds with his psionic power and Fired.

Loud woomps were heard over the city as a stream of blue glowing projectiles fired at the ground in the now evacuated area. The psi-charged spine rounds penetrated into the earth ripping into the Seers dispelling their portal and eliminating their threat of flooding the city and the Hive Cluster. With one threat down Solus decided his real body needed a good bit of exercise so he floated in the direction of the incoming Grimm horde.

Rain watched from the palace as the Behemoth that was Solus flew out of sight.

 **"Having a bit of fun are we!"** projected Rain.

The humanoid sub body of Solus turned to her.

"Even I need to get out and move sometimes," the humanoid body said.

Behemoth Solus shored over the green pastures of the farmlands that had been cultivated over many long years and as he continued north wards the land changed to a dry desert of sand and heat. In the distance the cloud of kicked up dirt created by the Grimm grew larger and larger. Solus scanned the ground detecting many hundreds and thousands of Grimm. He then opened his Scourge and Glaive launch tubs and fired. Barrages of the living missiles flew skywards by the dozens zooming towards the army of Grimm.

The Glaives and Scourges arched downwards and accelerated creating hundred meter high plums of dust as they impacted the earth and the gathered Grimm forces. Solus kept the Barrage up for a few minutes before stopping. By the time it ended the army of thousands of Grimm had been completely eliminated leaving nothing but a cluster of burning pot holes in the sand.

 _"Targets eliminated."_ Solus thought to himself.

Solus turned around and headed back to the city.

* * *

In her realm Salem was infuriated by yet another failure. She clenched her nails against her chairs arms rest as the cracks of black vain's along her face grew and shrunk. It was in that moment she came to the realization that normal tactics and Grimm would not cut it when facing these creatures from another world.

But she didn't have any alternatives. However if human science continues on its current pace then one day perhaps she could find someone willing to help her... IMPROVE her Grimm.

* * *

Back with Solus.

The Behemoth returned to the hole it came from, reoriented itself and once again burrowed itself deep under the land.

-Later-

Numia, Yuna and the two alpha Zerglings returned to the city which was in a uproar over Solus showing off his true form. Not that anyone besides Rain, Yuna and Numia knew the connection between the Behemoth and Solus humanoid body. Solus was once again in his throne room with the three Brood queens kneeling before him.

"I'm going on a journey." he said deadpan.

"Huh!"

"What?"

"Uh!?"

Rain, Numia and Yuna looked at Solus confused at his declaration.

"I'm going to explore Remnant a bit. This last event helped put things into perspective," declared Solus.

"Uh Solus why now?" said Yuna.

Solus shifted in his stone chair placing one hand on his chin.

"Well after defeating those Grimm I feel... unfulfilled. And a little board. I think a change of scenery would do me some good. I intend to wander the world after paying Salem a quick visit. It will also give me time to find another person that the Empress wises for me to get in to contact with. "

"Whos that?" asked Numia.

"A man going by the name Oz something or other. However he can reincarnate into a new body whenever he dies."

"Sounds like a interesting research subject for Vo'zen," said Rain.

"So who's going to lead Atlantis until you get back?" Asked Yuna. "Or are you still going to still do that on the side with your real body here?"

"I'll leave Rain in charge until my return."

Rain looked surprised. "Huh me?"

"Do you think anyone else can do a better job?"

"Uh no. Not really," Rain replied with a sigh.

"You'll do fine," said Yuna turning her head to Rain.

"You were always better at organization things like festivals and listening to people's problems then the two of us," said Numia with Yuna nodding beside her.

Rain gave a big sigh. "Fine then I guess i'm the new temporary regent. Are you leaving right away?"

Solus stood up and took a few steps forwards. "Yes I'll be departing shortly as soon as the Mutalisk is ready."

He took his crown off handing it to Rain.

"Ok then... be safe."Rain said. "Well it doesn't really matter what happens to that meat puppet does it."

"My soul is be centered in my Behemoth form but the loss of this body wouldn't be any less painful," he replied.

Solus walked away leaving the matters of rualing in his absence in the hands of Rain, Yuna and Numia. A hour later He entered the Mutalisk stables in a tall cylinder shaped building topped with a dome and some large doors on its sides so Mutalisk can leave and land. He went over to a Mutalisk with white wings and neon green markings. Mounting it with a large sack of things he will find use'full on his journey Solus left.

The Mutalisk flapped it's wings taking to the sky in a few second and quickly ascending higher and higher. Solus oriented it in the direction of his first destination. The shadowlands controlled by Salem and her Grimm.

* * *

-Later-

Salem wandered the wastes in silent contemplation as she does most of the time. Not scheming or making planes just enjoying her walk. But as she passes a pair of Death stalkers they screeched and shortly after a pair of Nevermores took flight intercepting something approaching from the air.

Salem looked afar into the sky watching as the two Nevermores flew in the direction of the intruder. Moments later the two Nevermores explode from Glaive hits downing the two giant birds with ease. Salem look's more intently now at the intruder recognising it as one of the Zerg flyers that had so brutalized her forces in the past decades. But this one was carrying someone on its back. The Mutalisk slowed as it flew over Salem's position making a tight turn before landing close by. Salem becomes more intrigued calling her forces instinctively gathering around their queen. Then Salem recognises the person is Solus.

"And what brings the illustris King of Atlantis to my... humble home," Salem sneered the venom practically dripping from her words but she wanted to now why he had come himself.

Solus approached keeping one hand resting on one of the three swords around his waist that he brought with him.

"It's about this little war between us. I believe it's gotten to the point where you've become a pest that needs to be exterminated," Solus said deadpan, his eyes boring into Salem's conveying complex seriousness.

"Hah! You... Kill me?"

Salem's haughtiness and lack of fear were based on the immortality forced upon her by the gods and the considerable boost in power she received from Amon.

"Im well aware of your ability to recover from any wound Salem. However THIS... constant conflict has warn my patience thin." Solus slowly and dramatically drew his long katana aiming it at Salem's head. "That is why I would like to form a non aggression agreement between our two peoples. "Solus flicked his long katana into a reverse position aiming downwards piercing the ground.

Salem tilted her head to one side feeling a little bit confused and chuckling internally at the thought of such a proposal.

"A nonaggression packed?... why?" she asked with a scowl; placing her left hand into a snapping position to signal the Grimm still gathering around them.

"My empress has plans for this world and if WE continue our little war; It might put them into danger. Besides..." Solus gave Salem a even more serious glare. "If I was serious about killing you I wouldn't need to do it directly. Without your Grimm your not as dangerous. And my Zerg forces are far more powerful than them. It wouldn't be to long until I had wiped this continent clean of them. And captured you."

The words were dead serious and absolutely true no matter how much Salem wished it not to be. But keeping her glare of subdued anger she sneered turning away for a moment so she didn't have to show her expression. "So what is this agreement of yours all about. I must factor into THIS Empress of yours, plans somehow?"

"The agreement is this. We the independent nation of Atlantis and our standing army will not interfere with the affairs of other Human or Faunas nations. So long as you agree do not attack our nation or others with the intent to wipe them out."

Salem turned back to him with a questioning glare. "And how does that help me?"

"We will not interfere with whatever you do to other nations so long as you don't conduct a repeat of last time."

Salem brought up one of her clawed fingers to her smiling lips. "Ah ha! You mean like that other nation I destroyed... What was it's name again?"

Solus continued. "Yes. However i'm not saying that you can not attack other nations but just that you can not do so with the intention to kill everyone."

Salem feeling bold and intrigued asked. "I understand what you saying. "she thought over the pros and cons of the proposal. "Hmm... Very well then. I'll be a good girl and not go about wiping out entire nations. Just parts of them every now and then."

The dead pan tone of her words left Solus hope she was telling the truth.

"Then if you agree well seal it in blood."

Solus raised his blade out of the ground and slit his hand on it letting blood ooze from the gash.

Salem scoffed giving a eye roll. "Very well then." She grabbed the blade and cut herself as well.

Solus pulled his sword back to his side and held out his bleeding hand. Salem grabbed his bleeding hand with her own slit palm and they shook.

"Hope this is worth it for you."

With those last words Salem left. Leaving Solus to contemplate the ramifications of the Zergs presence on this world and weather or not the future the empress had seen would come to pass anymore. Only time would tell. In the meantime he had a vacation to get onto.

He had served diligently as a King and leader among the Humans and Faunas population's for many decades now But Solus had at the same time felt that his perspective on everything had become limited. Which is why he he wanted to experience something new and see how the other peoples of Remnant live.

Mounting his Mutalisk Solus took off in the direction of the continent to the south west. Betting it's wings the Mutalisk took to the sky once again.

* * *

-Later-

The heat was scorching and sun bright; shining down from the sky as the caravan of camels and Faunus made their way through the sea of sand. One man nere the back of the caravan held the hand of his pregnant wife and the rains of his camel in the other as he walked beside the beast of burden.

"Ahh!" the bulging woman cried. She had dark brown skin with amber colored eyes.

The man with silver hair looked up at his wife. "Are you alright Melinda?"

Melinda glanched down from atop the camel. "Yes my love, i'm fine. The baby just kicked."

Feeling a little worried the husband felt Melinda's round belly.

"Hmm perhaps we should stay at the next village until you've given birth."

Melinda let out a sigh. "If only we could reach the next village. This blasted desert go's on forever."

"Ozman?" Called a man further a head with feathers on his arms and head.

"Yes" replied Ozmen.

"We've got Grimm in coming from the south west. Just a few Manta rays!"

"Ok got it," Ozmen relied.

In the sky a eagle flew high and fast looking down at the sandy landscape of slowly shifting sand dunes far below. It's eyes locked onto a group of large horse sized Grimm Manta rays skimming over the sand like hovercraft. Black all over with bone white armor covering their faces and along their back in a line of overlapping armor plating. The image of the eagles view was projected into the mind of a dark skinned Faunes with bird feathers coming off his arms and head as Ozmen ran up to him.

"How many Lute?" Ozmen asked.

Lute opened his eyes turning to Ozmen. "Four."

Ozmen nodded with a smile. "Four I can deal with."

Ozmen pulled out his long rifle aiming with care as he sighted in on the Manta ray shaped Grimm. He picked one in front out calmly taking aim, holding his breath while he made final adjustments and then... fired.

The loud crack echoed over the desert as the bullet was sent flying. The shell of metal with a core of red Dust spun quickly approaching the target; impacting right at the edge of the armor and exploded. Body chunks went everywhere turning the Grimm into a pile of black gore that quickly turned to black dust and was blown away by the desert winds. The other three Grimm mantas accelerated changing their direction right at Ozmen.

"Great shot!" shouted Lute as he fist pumped.

"Yeah but there's still three more coming," replied Ozmen as he cocked the bolt action rifle loading the next shell.

Aiming at the now much closer targets Ozmen fired three shots in rapid fire; Two of the shots hit downing two of the Grimm while the third missed. The last Grimm manta ray turned around after the other two died and retreated.

"Not so fast," Ozmen said as he aimed and fired.

The final shot landed detonating the last Grimm manta ray in a spectacular shower of body parts.

"And done. No more Grimm in sight," Lute said as he called his bird back.

A few moments later the eagle swooped down onto Lutes outstretched arms.

"Good girl Glinda."

Ozmen looked at Lute with wide eyes, shaking his head." Why would you name her Glinda?"

"What I like the name?"

"Glinda doesn't fit a eagle," Ozmen said as his wife on camelback passed behind him.

"I like the name." Melinda said.

Giving a sigh at his wife's opinion Ozmen slings his rifle over his shoulder. "Let's just get to the village so we can rest."

Ozmen stepped up his speed passing the others.

"Hehe. I think he's mad," Melinda said teasing her husband.

Lute placed one arm on his waist. "Naw he's just being stubborn because he secretly like the name."

Up ahead of them Ozmen shook his head sighing. "I just don't think the name suits a eagle thats all."

-Later-

Far above the desert sands Solus flew over head observing the sandy landscape that seemed like it went on forever. But looking out at the horizon Solus saw a cluster of buildings among the shifting wind swept dunes. With a mental order the Mutalisk turned leaning to the side changing direction. In just a few minutes Solus was circling over the desert oasis. The green trees surrounding the shimmering blue water of the oasis contrasting the buildings of the village built just beside it.

"A small settlement. The Mutalisk would bring to many questions so I should leave it somewhere close by and make my way on foot." Solus said out loud.

Landing a good few miles outside of the oasis village Solus took one of his pistols with his long katana and some jem's and gold to trade for money or services. He then sent the Mutalisk off into the sky to keep watch from a distance.

-Later-

It was nearly mid day by the time Solus reached the oasis town on foot. He entered town and started mingling with the people as they walked the streets. Getting into town was the easy part but finding out where to go was another. He knew he should get a room at a Inn but he didn't know the written languages of the locals but from what he can hear from those talking around him they seem to speak the same language at least.

"Hey... can I help you."

Solus turned around to the man behind him. "Im looking for a place to stay. Could you help me?"

"Oh yeah I know a place. This way i'll show you a shortcut to the inn."

The man seemed suspicious but it's not like he could hurt Solus anyway.

Solus followed the man through a gap between some buildings and then down a narrow back street. Just as they reached the middle of the street a pair of guys brandishing weapons jumped out from some of the buildings and quickly grabbed Solus around the neck. However Solus was having none of that. Grabbing he man's arm and pressing he let go of Solus neck. He was then spun around and forced to drop to his knees from the twisted wrist.

"Gah you bastard!" The man that had led Solus into the ambush growled pulling a knife.

Solus sighed at the boring morons. "If you three don't want me to kill any of you, you would consider this matter closed and leave."

Unfortunately the two men apparently didn't find Solus too convincing and rushed him. Just when Solus was about to kill the three men in one swing of his blade a loud shot rang out and a bullet making a hole in the ground by the bandits feet.

At one end of the street stood two men. On a Faunas with Feathers on his arms and head and the other a Human with silver hair holding a pistol and with large rifle slung around his shoulder.

"Gah! let's go."

With that said the would be bandits fled Leaving Solus and the two men in the ally way.

"Are you ok?" asked Ozmen as he approached lowering his hand gun.

Solus turned to the new man. "I could have handled myself. But the help is appreciated. My names Solus."

"Well Solus.. were pleased to meet you. Im Ozmen and this is Lute." said Ozmen holding out a hand.

"Likewise," said Solus and shook Ozmens hand.

-Later-

Solus, Ozmen and Lute walked into the Inn. The first floor was a bar where half a dozen people were gathered at differing tables around the room.

"Honey over here!" called Melinda sitting at the far corner.

The three men walked over to her table and sat down.

"Sorry were late dear. Me and Lute got sidelined when we ran into a bunch of thieves trying to steal from mister Solus here."

Melinde turned to Solus sitting to her left making note of his odd clothing. "I'm glad to hear no one was harmed; but if I may say so Mister Solus you don't look like your from around these parts?"

Solus nodded. "Thats right im not. But a expecting mother need not concern herself with a traveling vagabond such as myself."

Melinda smirked. "Oh! You have sharp eyes." she joked. "But let me be clear that you didn't have to follow my hero of a husband here. So is there a reason you did?"

Sensing she was a little suspicious of his motivation Solus changed gears.

"And if I may ask why are you so interested in a wandering man who just so happen to run into your husband at random?"

Melinda gave a laugh. "Hah! your sharp. To be blunt my oh so precious husband has a bad habit of helping strangers." Melinda looked over at Ozmen who smiled uncomfortably.

Solus gives a laugh. "Heh You two sound like a perfect couple."

Lute whos been quiet up till now spoke out. "As much as I would like to continue this conversation we really should get our room before nightfall."

Seeing as he has a point Melinde and Ozmen agreed.

"Very well. Gah!... I need to lay down for a bit anyway."

"I hope they have enough rooms for all of us?" Lute says as all four of then stand up and walked to the desk counter in the middle of the expansive room.

The female rabbit Faunes sitting at her station looked up at the four new customers.

"Welcome to the desert oasis inn. Are all four of you staying as one group or individuals ?" she asked with a cheerful attitude.

"The three of us are staying as a group. This man here is checking in on his own," Ozmen said guestering to Solus standing behind them.

"Ok just write your names down here and i'll get your room keys," she said sliding a book to Ozmens side of the counter.

Ozmen wrote down the names of himself Melinda and Lute then placed the feather pencil down.

"Thank you and please enjoy yourselves here."

Ozmen, Melinda and Lute collected their room keys and left. Solus stepped up to the counter.

"So you're staying alone sir." the desk lady asked.

For a moment Solus contemplated the question and came to the conclusion that the concept of Alone for a Zerg was irrelevant seeing as all Zerg were connected by the hive mind. But standing as a individual here and now he had to say.

"Yes im checking in alone."

-Later-

At a abandoned house at the edge of town.

"Gra!. Damn that guy. We almost had a pay day." said one of the would be thieves as he bashed his hand against the wall of the building.

The two bandits sat on the floor of their hideout with a little light beaming in from the half covered wall window. The light was disrupted for a moment making the two men take notice and stand up. With weapons drawn they carefully watched the door. A moment later it opened revealing the third member of the three man bandit group with a large cloth sack on his back.

"Hay hay now put those away," he said in the doorway.

The other two lowered their weapons and relaxed.

"Geez where have you been?"

The newly arriving bandit brought out a box from his large sack, placing it on the table. He unlocked the case and flipped open the lid showing a bunch of Dust crystals.

"Wa! where did you get all these? " asked one bandit.

"From a new client that's paying a lot of money to get something they want. And these are meant to help us get them."

"Hehe." chuckled the first bandit as he picked up one of the crystals, placing it into his swords hilt hollow causing it to spark with electricity and a yellow glow.

The second bandit chuckled. "Haha. What's the job anyway?"

The third bandit smiled. "Actually just so happens it's someone close to that fool who interrupted our hunt earlier today."

-Later-

Solus laid on his bed in the second floor room. It was relaxing to not have royal duties and responsibilities for once. His journey had only just begun but he was thoroughly enjoying his time. Then his thoughts turned to that man Ozmen.

"Ozmen? Oz? could he be the man my lady Ellen told me about. He did match the description somewhat. But he can change bodies after dying. But he should stay consistent with minor appearances... I should talk with him directly just to be sure."

Just then a blast rocked the building shacking Solus out of his bed. With a swift motion he grabbed his weapons and entered the hallway. Looking down one direction then another he saw other people opening their room doors to see what's up and then he realised the blast came from the room Ozmen and his companions were in down the hall.

*Coughing*

"What happened? a man asked as Lute crawled out of the burning room?"

Solus arrived kneeling at Lute's side. "What happened?"

"Ah... those bandits that tried to jump you before... they *Coughing* They kidnaped Melinda and Ozmen went after them."

Though he didn't have much incentive to interfere in human affairs the possibility of Ozmen being the current incarnation of Ozma better known as Ozpin, then he needs to talk with him before he gets himself killed. It may have been a fickle form of fate for Solus to suddenly and so easily come across the man that it would be down right criminal to let it go to waste.

"Which way did they go?"

-Mean while out in the desert-

The bandits rode speedly through the sandy lands on camel's back with Melinda. Her hands tied and mouth gagged as she sat in front one bandits his arms around her holding the rains of the camel.

"Hah!. That was easier then I would have thought," said the man keeping their target company.

The second bandit approached on his own humped stead. "So wears the meet up point?"

"A few miles outside of town." said the first bandit. "We only got a get there and hand over the girl then we can get paid and finally get out of this sand trap."

"I want to go to to Sanas. "said the third bandit. "I've heard it's at least less infested with Grimm then Solitas."

"Yeah yeah we've heard your spill before." said the second bandit. "Let's just focus on this job already."

With a gesture to their steads the three men picked up speed.

-Back with Solus-

Solus placed Lute on the floor of the Inn. The girl at the front desk came bringing a doctor into the room. The doctor looked at Lutes wounds and quickly assessed that he had a few broken bones and burns but nothing life threatening.

While this was going on Solus called to the Mutalisk that had been hovering at a altitude of 5000 feet waiting for it's next orders. The Mutalisk didn't have the same high spec sensory organs that the Overseer had but it like many flying and space Zerg it had it's senses improved for long ranged observation for space combat. So finding the three bandits and Ozmen trailing after them only took a few moments. It was easy to trace their path through the desert from the village using it as the point of origin.

"Please help Ozmen," Lute asked as his wounds were bandaged.

"I do have my own reasons but I will bring them back," Saying that Solus turned around and left out the door.

He made his way back to the entrance of the village and a few moments later the Mutalisk landed and lowered it's head so he could mount it. With a strong flap of it's wings the Mutalisk took to the sky's quickly speeding to it's targets.

-Same time at some very old looking stone ruins-

Melinda was pushed along while the three bandits kept her in front as they made their way farther into the meeting sight.

"This place is creepy" said bandit no. 2.

"You sure said that again." replied bandit no. 3. "Also why is she in front?"

Bandit no. 1. felt that his time playing around with these fools was at a end and feeling tired he dropped his illusion semblance revealing his true form.

A man in a white desert robs with dark brown skin and yellow eyes replaced the bandit.

"Oh so sorry" His voice was higher pitched and seething with contempt as he drew his twin scimitars one long the other short. "Your usefulness to me ends here."

In a single slash he cut both the men's heads off. The bodies fell like stones and the heads rolled spreading trickles of blood on the desert sands.

The gagged woman looked at the man with fear her eyes. "Mmph! mmph!"

"Oh don't give me that look sister it's your fault for falling love with that outsider. If you had just been a good little bride and married the chief of the Arlono tribe none of this would have happened. You only have yourself to blame."

"That's not far!"

The sudden entrance of the new comer brought light and hope into Melindas eyes as much as it brought a vengeful glare from her apparent brother.

"Grrr! you again. I thought you died in the attack?"

Pulling a revolver pistol out of his clothes Ozmen aimed it at the abductors head.

"Melinda should have the right to choose her own path and whom she loves."

"This is a matter of clan honor. You are a outsider. It's not your place to interfere."

Melinda's brother and Ozmen took up combat stances and started their dual. Ozmen shot first but missed as his bullets were dodged or deflected with a illusion taking the last few shots instead. Invisibly the brother closed the gap but the sand his feet kicked up gave away his location.

Ozmen leaped backwards and fired at the ground. His target scraped by the bullets but not harmed thanks to his aura. Ozmen keeped backing up until he was up against a ruined stone wall. Pulling out a knife he kept his eye open for disruptions in the surrounding environment.

Hearing a patter of feet he aimed to his left and shot twice. The bullets missed again and the invisible assassin stabbed Ozmen in the arm with one blade; while Ozmen blocked the other sword with his knife. The wound was far from fatal and was apart of Ozmens plan to lure him in. Then with a grunt of effort Ozmen grabbed the invisible killer and threw him over his shoulder slamming him hard onto the stone wall.

"Gah!"

With a strong hold on his down opponent Ozmen slashed at the arms disarming him one cut arm tendon at a time until he was left weaponless.

"Gahh!"

"Ozmen don't kill him!" Melinda pleaded finally able to get the gag off.

Even if he was sent to kill Ozmen and bring her back to their clan he was still her brother.

The brothers semblance dropped from the pain he was feeling revealing the gash covered arms dripping with rivers of blood.

"Ah! do you think me beaten."

With a swift kick Ozmen was sent flying back leaving his opponent the time and freedom to pull out a large fusion Dust crystal; a combination of red (fire) and white(wind) fused together with runic glyphs on its metal surface combining them.

"A inferno crystal!" Melinda yells. "Brother NO!"

"Die!"

Melinda ran to stop her brother from using the new weapon and Ozmen moved to stop her but in that moment that should have been yet another tragic blip in Ozmens eternal life of reincarnation a single blade shot through the air impaling the brother.

"Guh! How?"

The crystal dropped onto the soft sand it's inner glow fading as the man who would have used it fell with a large blade run through him.

Ozmen grasped His beloved and embracing her for a moment before unting her hands.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yes... yes i'm fine. The baby too. But who?"

The two turned too the new comer now standing over the dead body of Melinda's brother. Solus reached down pulling his blade from the corpse. With a flick of his wrist the blood was flung off the silver blade.

"Thanks. I... we own you." Ozmen said gesturing in thanks.

Sheathing his blade Solus turned to them taking a few steps forward. The look he gave Ozmen made the immortal uneasy.

"Is their something a matter? Or do you have something to say?" he asked.

"Do you know the name Salem?" Solus asked.

The name sent Ozmen into a protective mode as he quickly took a step between his beloved and Solus readying his weapon.

"How do you know that name?"

Solus held up both hands to show he means no harm.

"I mean no harm. I only wanted to confirm that you Ozmen are also Ozma. I've been meaning to look for you for a long time now but... the duty's of a leader are many and varied. Though it must have been that thing they call fate for us to meet so soon after I began my journey for you."

Looking very suspicious Ozmen relaxed a little.

"Who are you really Solus? If I am to believe you please share with me why you've come to look for me... but not here."

"I agree. Our talk is between the two of us. No offense to you miss Melinda."

"None taken. I could try but I suppose both of you would refuse it if I tried to force the issue. So i'll just trust you Ozmen."

With that out of the way they three buried the corpse of Melinda's brother and the two bandits before leaving for the oasis town. Hours later all three arrived back at the Inn. Lute now standing against the entrance welcomed them back with a limp and hugs. Once a new room was arranged Melinda and Lute stayed behind while Ozmen and Solus left to have their talk.

-On the roof of the Inn-

Bothe Ozmen and Solus stepped up to the edge of the roof; looking out at the starry sky and lights of the town.

"So... How do you know who I am?" Ozman asked seriously ready to use his weapons if need be.

Solus continued looking up at the night sky decorated with the lights of the galaxy.

" Allow me to properly introduce myself. Im Solus Gi Atlantis. The first king of the nation of Atlantis which resides on the continent to our far north."

Ozmen was surprised that there were any people still left on that continent.

"I had heard that all the nations on that continent died out when the Grimm attacked enmass a long time ago?" Ozmen said with undertones of regret in his voice.

"Many people did die but, my... people. The Zerg as we call ourselves saved many others and welcomed them into our nation. The nation of Atlantis which now stands as a thorn is Salem's side."

"If the Grimm have attacked your nation for so long how have you with stood them?" Ozmen earnestly asked.

Ozmen was deeply intrigued by the idea of a nation holding off what must be near constant attacks by the forces of Grimm. But as to how they achieved this feat was hardelly something he could imagine.

"Your nation must be formidable if your able to survive in the face of such odds."

"Yes you could say that. But on to the matter at hand." Ozmen became more focused at those words. "The empress of my people want's to convey a message to you."

"And what is this message?"

"That when the time comes your people and mine will work together to bring about a new age for all the people of Remnant."

Ozmen's Eyes shot wide as he was taken aback by that beyond bold statement.

"I... see. Is there anyway for me to directly contact your empress?"

Solus shook his head. "Unfortunately she is... indisposed at the moment; And cannot be reached by anyone. But we trust in her power and that she will return at the time she is meant to."

"Do you worship her like some kind of god?" Ozmen asked with a air of bias at the concept of god's given his experience.

Solus shook his head. "No. We Zerg don't practice religion. But we highly respect power in all it's many and varied form's. And she is the most powerful of us; and the founder of our swarm. Though there are others that fill in for her in her absence."

"Swarm?" Ozmen asked finding the use of that term odd for a nation.

"Swarm is what we Zerg refer to our self as as a collective race."

"Ah I see. In any case I hope I have the chance to met this Empress of yours one day."

Solus turned around and started walking away. "In anycase my job is done and I still have a lot of time to relax and a long journey to explore the rest of this world."

Solus stopped turning around to face Ozmen. "I hope we meet again some day Ozmen."

"As do I Solus. I would like to see that nation of Atlantis of yours one day."

Solus grinned. "You will one day. Along with Rwby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora and Ren."

Ozmen blinked at so many names being dropped at once.

"And who are they?"

Just then a large flying beast unlike anything Ozmen had ever seen before landed behind Solus. It wasn't black nore did it have the characteristic white bone plating that nearly all Grimm have so what was it

"Oh!" Solus said as he jumped atop the Mutalisk. "Just some people you should meet one day. Till we meet again Ozmen."

Without another word the beast flapped it's wings quickly taking flight into the night sky. Leaving Ozmen with even more questions than answers.

 **Chapter End.**

* * *

 **Note**

 **The story will continue in the sequel story** **Chronicles of the Fractal-verse.**


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